C.A.R. Management Briefing Seminars - Thursday

GM's Bob Lutz and Chrysler's Frank Klegon Share the Spotlight in Traverse City

CAR MANAGEMENT BRIEFING SEMINARS 2007
Thursday’s Insights in Traverse City
By Steve Purdy
TheAutoChannel.com
Detroit Bureau

Traverse City, MI – August 9, 2007 – Dr. Cole and his team really know how to throw a conference - dining, dancing, networking, schmoozing, and enough meeting and conferring to make it all justifiable to the boss – though more likely it’s the boss who is here. Midweek - Wednesday and Thursday - are the hot times when the notable speakers are making news here in TC. Today’s star is Bob Lutz, GM’s Vice Chairman of Global Product Development.

Just about everyone who likes cars or pays attention to the industry knows Bob Lutz as one of the most important “car guys” in the industry. Tapped in 2001 to be GM’s product guru, his sincere excitement and enthusiasm for automobiles is palpable. Over the past weekend he presided over the judging at the most prestigious classic and collector car show east of Pebble Beach, the Meadow Brook Concours d’Elegance in Rochester Hills, MI. His enthusiasm is not provincial and never has been. He’s as likely to praise an old Alfa, Lincoln or Toyopet as he is a Roadmaster, Eldorado or Chieftan That enthusiasm extends to his day job at GM where the bureaucrats have been known to suck the life out of enthusiastic execs. They’ll surely not get Bob down. In fact, it appears that his enthusiasm is infecting the bureaucrats as GM surges back to profitability and relevance.

Lutz started out with the story of the amazing poker-playing dog, who could manage his cards and toss his chips in to cover the pot, but was not a good poker player. The problem was that whenever he had a good hand his tail would wag uncontrollably. Lutz said if he had a tail it would be wagging now because GM has a mighty good hand to play. GM is positioning itself to respond to whatever direction technology and the market go. Electric vehicles of one kind or another will be a major part of the future of individual mobility, he insists.

Demonstrating a lithium-ion battery in a tiny little remote control toy helicopter Lutz crashed the first one into the floor. A spare helicopter was positioned to cover such a contingency and Lutz flew that one around the stage before crash landing it into the floor. “The hard part is landing the thing,” Lutz quipped, with what we all assumed was a reference to his adventure landing his East European MIG jet trainer on its belly at the Ann Arbor airport when the landing gear failed.

Lutz was asking the attentive audience to imagine the value of large amounts of electric power in a small package. To this end he announced a partnership with a company called A123Systems, a Massachusetts-based leading supplier of lithium-ion batteries, to co-develop electric power cells, using their proprietary Nanophosphate™ chemistry, for the Volt and other electrically powered cars. The only thing holding these cars back has been a solid advance in battery technology that will extend the range and utility of these vehicles.

Addressing another issue, “Who cares what’s behind the dash if it’s efficiently blowing cold air,” Lutz asked, talking about standardization of some automotive components across companies. His point was that more economies of production could be realized if those components that the customer doesn’t see or perceive as part of the brand are irrelevant to the customer as long as they work well.

Sharing the stage and the panel with Lutz were Frank Klegon, product VP at Chrysler and Mark Hogan, president of Magna International. Mr. Klegon, after touting the potential of the country’s first privately owned car company in half a decade and promising 30 new products in the next three years, talked about Chrysler’s thrust into diesel technology noting that 2/3 of Chrysler’s sales in Europe are diesels. Klegon reports 2006 model year sales included over 200,000 diesels.

More new powertrains are in the Chrysler pipeline including an all-new, aluminum-block V6 featuring multi-displacement (the ability to run efficiently on half its cylinders) for a 6 to 8% improvement in fuel mileage. A new dual-clutch, 6-speed automatic transmission is under co-development with respected German supplier Getrag. Chrysler will be offering hybrid powertrains in both Durango and Aspen next year. And, how about that new Chrysler “lifetime” powertrain warranty? What do you think of that? I guess that’s just the lifetime of the first ownership. Perhaps not such a big deal considering most first owners don’t keep the car past 60,000 miles anyway.

Kelgon touted the New Chrysler’s corporate agility describing the first 36 hours of the new ownership within which time nine major projects were given the green light. New engine and driveline projects focused on improving performance and fuel efficiency will eat up $3-billion of new investments. “As a private company, we’re able to make decisions more quickly and thus move faster to respond to the market,” Klegon insists.

“Congress believes in the Tooth Fairy,” says Dr. Cole as he hopped onto his soap box while wrapping up the session. The discussion was again about the raising of CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards) in a futile effort to reduce emissions and save fuel. “All push, and no pull from the market,” he asserts, “is just ludicrous.”

One disappointment has crept into our week in Traverse City where lovely little lakes are everywhere. Our friends from Gibbs Technologies are here but they were unable to bring the Aquada amphibious sports car that we had so much fun with a few weeks ago on Orchard Lake in suburban Detroit.

Watch this space for a Friday wrap-up of our week in beautiful Traverse City. -