CAFE Has Maximum Bob Confused, Depressed

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: March 20th, 2008

Another day, another hybrid prognostication from Maximum Bob Lutz. We reported yesterday that Lutz said that one-third of GM's sales would have to be hybrids by 2015 to meet CAFE standards. Overnight Lutz has maximized his vision to 80 percent hybrid sales by 2020. The Freep reports Lutz spouting such cheery bromides as "Ultimately by 2020 we figure that 80% of vehicles will require some sort of hybridization. We cannot get to 35 miles per gallon with anything resembling the current product portfolio with anything resembling current technology." Gee Bob, ya think? To be fair, we know that all this CAFE standards talk isn't really the Car Czar's forte. In fact, it seems like just talking about it is making the poor guy depressed. "Around 2015 we're going to have to sell a ton of hybrids whether people want them or not," Lutz told the Detroit News. "It's basically going to result in the quasi-disappearance of V-8 engines." Now that doesn't sound like the Maximum Bob we know and love.

Edward Niedermeyer

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4 of 11 comments

Redbarchetta on Mar 20, 2008
carguy1964 That would be awesome to see Honda come out with the first ever 30+mpg V8 that actually produces decent horsepower, just not in a FWD car. It would be the 1970's all over again for GM. "Nobody can make a V8 that meets these new crazy regs, what Honda is selling one right now."

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AKM on Mar 20, 2008
So what are they going to do, make people buy hybrids at gunpoint if they don’t want them? That's exactly what CAFE does, and that's why a majority of writers and posters on this website favored a flat gas tax instead. I hate most SUVs, but believe people have the right to buy them, as long as they pay the price of it. CAFE just forces weird decisions on corporations, makes the public happy in the short term since it leads them to think they're nice little people and the corporations are big and evil. But in the long term, the same people will be pissed when they'll realize that no matter how hybrid an SUV is, it remains a fuel-inefficient brick and that automakers have stopped making them to comply with CAFE rules.

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Johnson on Mar 20, 2008
"Around 2015 we're going to have to sell a ton of hybrids whether people want them or not," Isn't this an oxymoron? Then again, Bob "the Putz" Lutz did say it so it should come as no surprise. Sorry Putz, but this isn't some dream world. In the real world, if people don't want your vehicles, you will NOT be selling a "ton of hybrids".

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Anonymous on Mar 20, 2008
Sorry Putz, but this isn’t some dream world. In the real world, if people don’t want your vehicles, you will NOT be selling a “ton of hybrids”. Actually a ton is only about a half of one of todays overweight vehicle. Should be possible.

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