Car Guys vs. Bean Counters - Bob Lutz [100]
And then there were the issues of cost. Despite the best efforts of GM’s highly talented hydrogen fuel cell team, which achieved breakthrough after breakthrough in terms of performance and reliability, material cost of a fuel cell vehicle, at any realistic near-term production volume, remained many multiples higher than a conventional gasoline drive system and a couple of multiples higher than a battery-powered vehicle like the Chevrolet Volt.
I frequently attacked what I considered to be the single-minded, heavy financial commitment to fuel cells, feeling they were too far out on the time horizon and robbing us of the research funds needed to create more viable near-term solutions. But it was always for naught: the internal fuel cell “lobby” had the ear and heart of Rick Wagoner, who let himself be convinced that a few years of additional effort would make GM the reinventor of the automobile, that we would be producing vast fleets of carbon-free vehicles, and that costs would actually be below those of a conventional car. It was a noble vision but a big bet.
I would have dialed the research program way, way down and perhaps sought joint ventures. Support for our maximum-effort fuel cell program within the company was mixed, at best. Most shared the public’s (and my) misgivings about cost and the low probability of convincing oil companies to spend billions on high-cost hydrogen fueling stations all over the country, along with the high pressure tankers needed to resupply them. And the dirtiest secret about fuel cell vehicles is that, despite the hype, the mileage is not infinite. As near as anyone can reasonably calculate, the total consumption of carbon fuel for a fuel cell vehicle, from “well to wheel,” as the phrase goes, is only a bit more than double that of a very efficient internal combustion car, or about 80 mpg. That figure, it is generally acknowledged, is about what can be attained using a small diesel engine in conjunction with a battery hybrid system. An emission-certified diesel hybrid is also an expensive proposition, but far less than half of even the most optimistic fuel cell projections. I would have kept it going as a long-term project with modest funding and would have reallocated the money! And we would have stopped talking about it.
My main focus, however, would have been the elimination of superfluous activities, committees, and non-value-added work. When hour upon hour was spent arguing at the most senior corporate meetings about whether potential future managing director candidates are “functionally specialized” or “general management” in their capabilities, my eyes glazed over. What difference could it possibly make? Are they aggressive, smart? Are they leaders? And this “planning” was done so far in advance that so much would change, personnel-wise, in the interim, that most of the “good work” was for naught anyway. I would have summarily scrapped the hallowed, enormously time-consuming “Performance Management Process” system, with its dozens of interlocking “functional” versus “geographic” goals, all “box-balanced” by region and function for absolute precision, eliminating any inconsistency in goal setting. The worst thing about the PMPs was that, when the laborious process of goal setting and metrics was finally complete, after months of work by the HR department, it was already out-of-date. The fast-shifting world saw to it that major economic and market functions had changed enough to render pursuit of the original goals meaningless. The elaborately prepared, earnestly negotiated and discussed sheets of goals remained tucked away in file cabinets and drawers, never to be consulted