GENERAL MOTORS vice chairman and product chief Bob Lutz will retire at the end of this year, ending a legendary automotive career that spanned 46 years and included top jobs at all three Detroit carmakers.
Lutz (76) will move to a new role as vice chairman and senior adviser from April 1st, until his retirement at the end of the year, the car firm said.
Tom Stephens, currently GM’s executive vice president of global powertrain and quality, will take over product development.
Lutz was credited with the success of GMs more recent products, including the Chevy Malibu, and was the leading proponent for its Chevy Volt, an electric vehicle with a small, range-extending gasoline engine.
But at the same time, Lutz remained a controversial and outspoken figure, recently telling a group of journalists that global warming is a “crock of shit”.
A former US marine fighter pilot, Lutz began his automotive career in 1963 at GM. He then went on to work for BMW in Europe, served on Ford’s board and spent 12 years at Chrysler before rejoining GM in 2001.
A consummate showman, Lutz was famed in Detroit for flying his own helicopter and a collection of aircraft, sometimes to corporate events.
The move by Lutz to step down came as GM announced it was cutting its worldwide employment from 73,000 to about 63,000, with a 14 per cent cut in white-collar employees. The announcement comes ahead of a February 17th deadline to provide an updated plan to US government officials on how it can become viable.
Lutz was an outspoken critic of GM’s earlier attempts to cut costs by using cheaper interiors materials and its past failure to maintain consistent quality.
– ( Bloomberg)