The AP reports that GM’s Ed Whitacre is reshuffling executives, turning an already-nervous RenCen on its head. Whitacre has elevated global engineering boss Mark Reuss to take charge of US operations, not an entirely surprising decision as the former Holden boss’s star had clearly been rising. Considerably more shocking was Whitacre’s decision to strip Bob Lutz of his marketing position and roll that responsibility into Susan Docherty’s Sales position. But don’t cry for the man called Maximum: Lutz will remain vice-chairman, will become “an adviser on global product development,” personally advising Whitacre on the auto industry. Nick Reilley, who has been GM’s international fix-it man, has been appointed President of GM Europe, while Diana Tremblay has been named vice president, Manufacturing and Labor Relations. “I want to give people more responsibility and authority deeper in the organization and then hold them accountable,” Whitacre said in GM’s statement, found here.
If there’s a word to describe the feeling inside GM right now, it would be “nervous.” Though nobody was surprised that Fritz Henderson would leave at some point, it’s clear that his ouster was strangely timed and indicative of Ed Whitacre’s desire for rapid results. In an instant, Whitacre public image went from Iacocca-wannabe-pitchman to hard-charging Texas executive, seemingly defined by (get this) his penchant for killing rattlesnakes by pinning them with a stick and crushing their heads with a rock. So vivid is this metaphor, that according to Businesweek‘s David Welch, a number of GM executives actually offered their resignations to Whitacre immediately following the Henderson’s canning. Though Whitacre declined to let the bloodletting continue, a numberofcommentators now appear to believe that Whitacre wants to run GM himself. Though pay caps will be the easy excuse for not finding a new CEO, the board of director’s activism in clashing with Henderson over the Opel sale could discourage other executives from even considering the job. Moreover, Whitacre’s history of taking over companies and molding them in his image is well-established from his time at SBC/AT&T. So, will Ed Whitacre drop the pretense and the word “interim” from his title, or is he really just clearing the way for someone else?
Bowing to legislative pressure, GM and Chrysler have announced today that they will initiate reviews of the dealer cull undertaken during bankruptcy. GM is announcing a “Comprehensive Plan To Address Dealer Concerns,” while Chrysler characterizes its agreement as a “Binding Independent Review Process for Discontinued Dealers.” Both firms take pains to thank Senator Dick Durban and Rep Steny Hoyer for their leadership in preparing the non-legislative conclusion of months of bitter acrimony. Culled GM and Chrysler dealers, you know who to make your campaign donations to… unless you’re a member of the dissident group the Committee To Restore Dealer Rights. According to Automotive News [sub], the group says the new plans will only allow “between 39 and 51” culled GM dealers to be reinstated. “The GM proposal guarantees that they would win every arbitration,” says one member of the committee, who alleges that the new process is based on the same allegedly flawed data the initial cull was based on. Hit the jump for the plan outlines.
Apparently you’re not a real blog anymore unless you play some part in the giddy rush to strip Tiger Woods of any remaining shred of privacy… so as much as we’d prefer to not escalade the situation, here goes. USA Today reports that the Cadillac Escalade Tiger allegedly drove into a fire hydrant doesn’t belong to him, but is actually owned by General Motors. Huh? Didn’t GM and Tiger part ways just over a year ago? Woods’ contract with GM was originally supposed to expire this year, so perhaps Tiger was due a few perks post-contract because of its early demise. Or, maybe the Escalade was just an old-fashioned celeb loaner. Either way, maybe this will change the conventional wisdom that lending free cars to celebrities is a good decision branding-wise. Especially for firms that are going to have to use taxpayer money to pay someone to buff out those 9-iron marks.
Kelley Blue Book has released its annual resale value data, and according to the WSJ, Toyota, Honda and BMW remain the top brands in five-year residual value. Still, Toyota’s average residual value dropped from 42.7 percent to 38.8 percent, while Honda fell from 44.5 percent to 38 percent. Those drops mirror an industry-wide decline in residual values, which had hovered around 35 percent for some time, but have fallen to about 32.6 percent for 2010 models. But American brands have bucked that trend:
KBB estimates Ford’s 2010 models will keep 32.4% of their value after five years. That’s an improvement—for 2009, KBB put the residual value of Ford’s models at 31.7%. Likewise, GM’s 2010 five-year residual value is 31.3%, up from 29.5% a year earlier. Chrysler’s figures are 29.5% for 2010 models, compared with 29% for 2009 models.
KBB’s top ten models for five-year residual value after the jump.
We had been hearing for some time now that GM planned to roll out its Volt EV in limited numbers and select markets, and it comes as no surprise to hear that the first such select market will be California. The Golden State is a hotbed of support for electric vehicles and, not coincidentally, one of the more affluent car markets in the world. A number of firms, from Coda to Honda have selected California as a test-bed for their high-efficiency but not-yet-ready-for-prime-time products. In California, GM is partnering with three public utility companies, and will spend some $30m of DOE-administered stimulus money to slow-roll the Volt into reality. According to GM’s release:
As part of the research and demonstration program, Chevrolet will deliver more than 100 Volts to program participants to use in their fleets for two years. Chevrolet will also utilize OnStar telematics technology to collect vehicle performance data and driver feedback that will be reported to the DOE and used to improve customers’ experiences with the new technology.
Fritz was and is an outstanding executive, and I’m very sorry to see him go. You can argue there never is a good time for any of this, but in this case, the timing is particularly inopportune… He guided General Motors through perhaps the most difficult period in its history. I think all of us were surprised and the whole General Motors team I think is genuinely saddened over what transpired
GM Marketing boss “Maximum” Bob Lutz eulogizes his erstwhile boss at the Los Angeles Auto Show [via DetN]. Historians of the Lutzian oeuvre should note that this quote represents MaxBob’s attempt at exercising “enormous skill in the non-answering of [Fritz-related] questions.”
According to Jalopnik, this license plate belongs to Morgan Stanley Vice-Chairman Rob Kindler, who apparently thought this kind of joke is funny. Too bad he missed bonus points by failing to put the plate on an Escalade.
GM sources speaking to Bloomberg say that Ed Whitacre has told employees that he could stay in the position of CEO for as long as a year. During a 30 minute broadcast to GM’s staff, Whitacre said that the search for Fritz Henderson’s replacement could take as little as a several months, but that he was prepared to stay on as CEO for as long as a year. Whitacre reportedly also said that there were no further firings planned. [Hat Tip: Tex Lovera]
When Infiniti’s new M sports sedan hits the market next year, it will be available with an optional tech package that includes a mighty strange feature for a sports sedan. A so-called Eco-pedal will actually resist you overactive right foot, providing feedback that Nissan says is intended to discourage inefficient (read: enjoyable) driving styles. The payoff is supposedly a five to ten percent improvement in efficiency, although convincingly proving causality for those results can’t be easy. After all, if you’re driving for efficiency, you don’t need the gas pedal to be telling you to go easy. Luckily, even if you do pay more for the package that includes this feature, it will be switch-offable. Or ignorable. “The driver can easily disregard the resistance,” Infiniti product planning director John Weiner tells Automotive News [sub], “or turn it off altogether. But if you heed the signal and do as prompted, it can improve fuel economy.” Whatever happened to those “upshift now” lights that were so popular on the dashboards of cars in the 80s?
Along with Israel, Denmark is one of the first countries to sign on to Project Better Place’s attempt to establish a viable electric car infrastructure. And as with all early adopters, Denmark is paying a pretty price for the experiment. The country is spending $100m on infrastructure, including charging points and battery-swap stations. Moreover, Better Place’s partner, public utility Dong Energy, is trying to run the new EV infrastructure entirely on wind power, which is already the source of 20 percent of Denmark’s energy. “We’re the perfect match for a windmill-based utility,” Better Place founder and CEO Shai Agassi tells the NY Times. “If you have a bunch of batteries waiting to be charged, it’s like having a lot of buckets waiting for rain.” Despite the close government involvement in the project, Danes are still wary of making a wholesale switch to EVs, prompting the government to offer $40,000 in consumer incentives for electric vehicles, as well as free parking in downtown Copenhagen. Though there’s plenty of skepticism in Denmark about the plan, that incentive is expected to make a huge difference.
The departures from GM are piling up fast. After CEO Fritz Henderson was ousted yesterday, MarketWatch reports that Opel’s CFO Marco Molinari has left the firm. This completes a gutting of GM’s financial operations, that includes the departure of GM International CFO Joe Peter, and the any-day-now departure of GM CFO Ray Young. Like the GM mothership, Opel is now without a permanent CEO and CFO. GM CEO and Chairman Ed Whitacre has a ton of hiring to do, and fast.
Recently, it’s become popular to believe that when a zombie loses its head, it dies. With today’s resignation of Fritz Henderson, the reanimated corpse of General Motors is testing that theory. Henderson was the latest in a line of GM lifers to hold the company’s reigns, hand-picked by ousted CEO Rick Wagoner and put in place by a presidential task force that couldn’t say no to another insider. In theory, Henderson’s resignation shouldn’t come as a surprise, let alone a disappointment. In practice though, the move leaves the zombie GM in a precarious position at a challenging moment. For the first time since (your guess here), GM is in the hands of an outsider. (Read More…)
What happens on Facebook is not private, kids. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the right screencap can be worth a a few million. Ms Henderson’s anger is understandable, but it also makes it difficult to discern the amount of real truth in her words. In any case, this might confirm a few suspicions that Henderson’s departure was not an entirely well-planned, or mutual decision. Or, it might just make you a little sad. Either way, Ms Henderson’s version of the truth is out there now.
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