DETROIT ? General Motors is pouring on the coals in the development of hybrid vehicles over the last couple of years, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said Thursday. GM’s management has been skeptical about the utility of hybrids given the extra cost, complexity and weight that come with putting gas and electric motors in each car.
However, even though Toyota is probably still losing substantial sums on each hybrid-vehicle it sells, the Japanese auto giant has gotten a big lift from the technology, Lutz told TheCarConnection.Com. Toyota?s image as a technology leader and a company that cares about the environment has been enhanced enormously, he said, thanks to the hybrids.
“If Toyota had spent $300 million on corporate advertising campaign, it would have nowhere near the same effect,” said Lutz. Lutz said Toyota clearly took a broad view of the potential of hybrid technology, he said. Even if the company lost money on selling individual vehicles, Lutz said, it has gained stature in the marketplace.
GM, on the other hand, has traditionally taken a narrower view that effectively ruled out the aggressive use of an exotic technology such as hybrid powertrains, Lutz said. GM chairman Richard Wagoner also has been quoted as saying that GM would not build a vehicle unless it could make money on it. GM now plans to bring out a hybrid version of the Saturn Vue next summer and will introduce hybrid versions of its full-size pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles in 2007. Toyota’s success has forced GM to rethink its position, he said
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