ON THE TABLE

January 25, 2012

GM. Longtime AE readers know that we do not blindly say "Buy American." Instead, it's "Drive what you like and like what you drive" - whatever that might be. We do take issue, however, with the recent announcement that GM has awarded its $3 billion with a "B" global media buying and planning account to Aegis Media's Carat, a French company. (Carat's corporate owner, Aegis, is based in the United Kingdom.) Last time we checked, General Motors is still owned by the U.S. taxpayers. And what, a U.S.-based firm couldn't have done the job? We're not buying that in the least, because there are plenty of talented firms in the U.S. that could have done the job quite nicely. In the end it's all about efficiencies of scale, something that CEO Dan Akerson has been hammering away at every corner of GM about, and we get that. But still, it just doesn't sit right with us. At all.

The Chevrolet Volt. Editor-in-Chief's Note: I've gone on record repeatedly saying that the Chevy Volt is a magnificent technological achievement of the first order, and that what the True Believers at GM pulled-off under extreme duress - the car was developed and brought to market under the specter of bankruptcy - was truly remarkable. I also think that for a lot of people, whether they want to make a green statement or maybe because they're intrigued with the vehicle itself, the extended range technology of the Volt is the best choice, much more so than a pure electric vehicle. That said, there's a lot of hand-wringing going on right now within GM because the Volt has taken an image hit that has damn near crippled sales in some parts of the country. As I said when it happened, when you mention the words "catch fire" and a vehicle name in the same sentence, or tweet, or facebook post in this 24/7 instant communication universe we live in right now, the who-what-when-where-why of the story not only gets lost, it gets completely ignored. In short, the Volt image is in tatters, thought it's relentlessly unfair and unwarranted. Can the Volt image be saved? Yes, eventually. But it's going to take a lot to save it. And with Chevrolet and GM buried in advertising issues that grow more complex by the day, it's going to be very difficult to devote resources to the Volt. But the company has no choice. They chose to make the Volt the tip of their technological spear, and to walk away from it now would be the wrong move completely. So in order to restore the Volt to consumer shopping lists, GM is going to have to come out swinging on behalf of it, and sooner rather than later. - PMD

GM, Chevrolet. Adding to GM's Volt woes, some dealers are turning down Volts that GM wants to ship to them, according to Automotive News. In the New York City market, dealers took just 31 of the 104 Volts allocated them last month - the lowest take rate for any Chevy model. A GM spokesman confirmed that dealer ordering is down and says that many dealers have been waiting for NHTSA's resolution of the fire investigation. Many are also saying that they no longer have customers waiting for the Volt. And as if to echo this, GM executives last week said they wouldn't chase a previous production target of 60,000 Volts for 2012. GM sold 7,671 Volts in the U.S. in 2011, short of its 10,000-unit target. Having an image problem with consumers is one thing - having an image problem with your very own dealers is something else entirely. GM needs to do a better job of getting the real message of the Volt out there. And they can start by scrapping the current TV advertising, which does nothing to explain what the Volt is really all about.

Dan Akerson. Word is that the GM CEO is prepared to fire back at Congressional critics of the Chevrolet Volt during his appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday. The committee is conducting a hearing on the handling of an investigation of a potential fire risk involving the Volt's lithium-ion battery. Yes, Dan, now is the time to get feisty and to bring it. Give 'em hell, if deserved. Please.

Henrik Fisker. Editor-in-Chief's Note: In Mark Rechtin's excellent piece in Automotive News this week, along with taking us on a path of discovery of what Fisker the company is and where it's at in terms of actual viability, he delves deep into the Henrik Fisker mindset, resulting in this gem from Fisker: "Building a few thousand Karmas in Finland is one thing, but manufacturing in Delaware at 80,000 to 100,000 units a year is mass manufacturing." That's not only our AE Duh of the Week, it says more about Fisker's maniacal ego and delusional thinking than anything we could have ever come up with on our own. After basically absconding with a $529 million Department of Energy loan, which was basically gifted under false pretenses so that Fisker could resurrect a shuttered ex-GM plant in Wilmington, Delaware (hey, isn't that Joe Biden country?) so he could then indulge his John DeLorean fantasies to his heart's content - which means building a luxury car for the discerning few, or at least the few who are hell-bent on making the hippest-of-the-moment green statement they can possibly muster, anyway - while promising a "mass produced" vehicle to come, Fisker is basically dead in the water. Read Rechtin's story carefully and you see a man in full, or rather so full himself that he can't possibly be thinking clearly. He has a seamless response and explanation to every question posed to him by Rechtin, but the underlying missing link in all of it is the fact that no one is actually going to buy anything he makes at any sort of a volume level to justify the investment in the whole damn enterprise whatsoever. Not even close in fact. It's just notgonnahappen. I don't care who he hires, either (this week it was ex-GM and Chrysler manufacturing specialist Tom LaSorda and veteran Jaguar sales honcho Richard Beattie) because the fundamental conceit that Fisker is operating under is that people "out there" actually see the world as he does, which has always been the fatal flaw of every single person who has attempted to launch a car company throughout history. The ones who have succeeded have always brought more to the table than that. And what does Henrik Fisker bring exactly? 1. An out-of-control designer ego that has been assuaged and massaged at every turn and 2. A firm belief that his design vision must be indulged because it's so damn good that if "the people" just saw it and understood it he would be the King of the World and an Official Legend of the Car Business. I'm sorry, but this whole Fisker think stinks to high heaven. All of this, and let me be crystal clear here, all of this is because Fisker wants to play in his own sandbox and build the kinds of cool cars (at least in his estimation) that he deems appropriate for public consumption. And he wants everyone else  - including the U.S. government and the U.S. taxpayer - to pay for it while he's at it. My bullshit detector pegged itself long ago with this Fisker thing, and I just wish more people would open their eyes and see exactly what this guy is up to. Not Good doesn't even begin to cover it. - PMD

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