Paging Bob Lutz: Where's the Buzz for GM's New Hybrid Sedan?
As I've recently mentioned, I'm not so geeked on the whole un-retiring of Bob Lutz at GM, especially from a business standpoint. I did hold out some faint hope that his energy and enthusiasm could be a plus on the marketing side, but after today, even that is fading fast.
I mean, it came out on GM-Volt.com that the company is going to develop a high-efficiency hybrid version of the 2011 Chevrolet Malibu. Naturally, I then popped over to GM's media site to check out the press release, and what I found was ... nothing.
The core of the story is that the 2009 Malibu hybrid was a non-starter sales-wise. Per GM, customers didn't think that its fuel economy of 26 mpg city/34 highway '” boosted by the company's mild hybrid system'” represented enough of a jump over the four-cylinder Malibu's 22/33 to justify its cost.
GM figures the remedy is to go the full monty with a "real" hybrid platform for the next Malibu and get a more significant jump in fuel efficiency. This, according to a piece on CNET, means a roughly 20 percent increase in mpg. Just for laughs, let's say that somehow works out to the Malibu matching the fuel efficiency of the current Ford Fusion hybrid: 41 mpg city/36 mpg highway.
Now that sounds like a pretty big story, right? GM finally rolling out a dedicated hybrid sedan to compete with Ford's savior? Unfortunately, Mr. Lutz seems to be a bit tone deaf these days.
Because, even though I'm starting to seriously doubt the benefits of all these OEMs chasing all these different alternative-fuel technologies, I don't doubt for a second that the public still wants to hear about them. And that a company like GM can still make an important impression on consumers by discussing these technologies in the media.
Based on the lack of news the Malibu hybrid is generating, I guess Lutz thinks otherwise.
But maybe that's why he's king of GM and I'm not. On the other hand, maybe that's why GM is bankrupt and I'm not.