GENERAL MOTORS’ venerable Bob Lutz came to the Los Angeles Auto Show to talk about electric cars and, particularly, the company’s Chevy Volt. The only thing anyone else wanted to talk about, however, was Fritz Henderson.
Henderson was until last Tuesday the chief executive of General Motors and was to give the keynote speech to open the LA show. But by the time a two-day board meeting in Detroit wrapped up Tuesday afternoon, Henderson was gone, having resigned at the board’s request and leaving chairman Ed Whitacre jr in charge of GM’s day-to-day operations.
That put Lutz, the company’s vice-chairman in charge of marketing, in the uncomfortable position of having to step up and make Wednesday’s speech. And the former Marine did so adroitly, considering the circumstances.
Lutz adapted the same speech Henderson was to give, an individual familiar with the companys operations said, sprinkling in a few of his trademark jokes. But he refused to talk about Henderson’s ouster.
“I know you’d all like the true account of what happened at General Motors” on Tuesday, Lutz said. “I’m not going to tell it.”
He said he was surprised by the news and spoke highly of Henderson, who leaves after 25 years at the company and was named CEO in March, following the ouster of his predecessor, Rick Wagoner. Fending off questions about the automakers executive turmoil at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Lutz stayed on topic.
The good news, he said, is the plug-in hybrid electric Volt, which will come to California first starting at the end of next year. Another positive, Lutz said, is that the cuts of brands, personnel and factories that GM has suffered through in the past year have strengthened the companys balance sheet. Were poised to be profitable in anything close to a normal auto market, Lutz said.
– Ken Bensinger, LA Times
