Ex-auto honcho Bob Lutz trashes US goal for electric car sales

The goal to prod a majority of Americans into buying emission-free electric cars over the next decade is a pipe dream, a former executive at three top US automakers said Sunday.

“The regulation is way ahead of the public,” Bob Lutz — ex-exec at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler — told John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM’s the Cats Roundtable. “The American public is not ready for the broad adoption of electric vehicles.”

“We don’t have enough electricity-generating infrastructure,” he scoffed.

President Biden aims to make electric car buys up to 60% of all new vehicle sales by 2030 to reduce carbon emissions — and make up two out of three sales by 2032.

New York and California both have aggressive rules to phase out gas-powered cars for electric autos.

Lutz guessed 10% to 12% of drivers may want electric cars.

“That’s good,” he said. “But the remainder still wants internal combustion.”

“This transition by 2030 is just not going to happen,” he added. “What will happen is … everybody will continue to make a lot of internal-combustion vehicles, which sell. And they’ll make electric vehicles, which even now are not selling at the pace that everybody would like.”

According to Lutz, “what will happen is that the governments … are going to have to … push out the deadline. Or, if it’s an authoritarian government like China, they’ll just say, ‘You either buy an electric vehicle or you buy no vehicle at all.’

“Well, that may work in China. But it’s not going to work in the United States or Europe. What will happen … is the deadline will get pushed out and pushed out and pushed out.”

Lutz said Americans should consider buying an electric car and see if they like it — particularly if they’re not regularly driving long distances that would necessitate pit stops to charge up.

 “The government fuel economy rules … cannot be met without broad-scale electrification. What we’re seeing is electrification [adoption] that could occur naturally, because there’s a lot to be said for electric vehicles. But right now, it’s being forced by governments for environmental reasons,” he said.

Also in the interview, Lutz called former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca the best auto boss he had — and praised current GM CEO Mary Barra, who worked under Lutz when he an executive there.