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Former GM and BMW Executive Warns Apple: Your Car Will Be a "Gigantic Money Pit"

Posted by samzenpus on from the throwing-good-money-after-bad dept.

An anonymous reader writes: With rumors that Apple is not only moving ahead on its electric car initiative, but trying to accelerate its development, a former GM and BMW exec is giving a few words of warning. Bob Lutz appeared on CNBC and expressed his doubts that Apple has a fighting chance to make any impact on the auto industry. "And when it comes to actually making cars," Lutz said, "there is no reason to assume that Apple, with no experience, will suddenly do a better job than General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota or Hyundai. So I think this is going to be a gigantic money pit, but then it doesn't matter. I mean Apple has an embarrassment of riches, they don't know where to put the cash anymore. So if they burn 30 or 40 billion dollars in the car business, no one's going to notice."

4 of 535 comments (clear)

  1. That's what Nokia, Moto, and Microsoft said by mveloso · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's exactly what Moto, Microsoft, and Nokia said about the iPhone. Where are they now?

    1. Re:That's what Nokia, Moto, and Microsoft said by T.E.D. · · Score: 3, Informative

      Apple knows how to make computers. An iPhone is just a small computer that happens to be able to make phone calls. A car is an entirely different kettle of fish.

      Not so much anymore. Particularly with EV's, where the engine and drivetrain are actually quite simple, aside from the computerized bits. What you have with those may very well just be "a large computer that knows how to move a big box."

  2. Lutz is an idiot by surfdaddy · · Score: 3, Informative
    Lutz is an idiot, a blowhard. IMHO he's highly overrated. He laughed at hybrids when Toyota came out with the Prius. A few years later GM was wildly scrambling to catch up with THREE different hybrid systems (two have failed and one is no market winner) - the "mild" hybrid a la Malibu, the "two mode" hybrid for big SUVs, and the Volt. The first two are already out of production.

    Lutz also led the development of the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky sports cars, which looked great but were crap cars that also failed in the market.

    You can pretty much ignore whatever he says.

  3. Re:Tesla is overpriced right now by pnutjam · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is a reason there have been virtually no new car companies then last 4 decades.

    Kia and Hyundai have both been in the US for less then 4 decades, just off the top of my head.

    --
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