Bob Lutz is sticking to his claims that electrified powertrains are more at home in trucks and larger commercial vehicles, not passenger cars, as that’s the stated goal of the company he’s been a part of for a few years now: VIA Motors. Now, they have announced Lutz, a former vice-chairman of GM, as their new Chairman of the Board.
John Webber, the CEO of VIA Motors had this to say:
“VIA is fortunate to have the experience of one of the industry’s foremost executives leading our board,” to which Lutz himself added the aforementioned conviction about electrifying trucks – “I believe VIA is electrifying the right end of the business and is implementing a very sound business strategy. If we are going to see main stream adoption of electric vehicles, the technology must deliver a good return on investment to the largest segment of the auto business, namely trucks, vans & SUVs. That’s why I am so confident in VIA and I’m pleased to serve as Chairman.”
In the future, it’s unclear whether the company will stick to modifying trucks already manufactured, and not start doing its own thing, but it would need to at least consider shifting towards the latter to make a real impact on the market and get noticed more. They currently only convert trucks, vans and SUVs, most of which are made by GM.
Below you’ll also find the Jay Leno’s Garage video featuring Lutz who talks Jay through one of their petrol-electric conversion jobs.
By Andrei Nedelea
VIDEO