Bob Lutz Thinks Tesla Will Die Soon

Tesla Model S (Credit: Tesla Motors)

Back in the day Bob Lutz and Elon Musk seemed like cozy buddies, with the two pioneering electric car technology side-by-side. Today, they appear to be more like mortal enemies, and Lutz has made it pretty clear that he thinks Tesla Motors is circling the drain.

For a little bit of context, Lutz is the “father” of the Chevrolet Volt, a car that’s helped wash away at least some of the image of a company that “killed” the electric car. It’s also brought the ire of Fox News and other select conservative pundits. Then Tesla Motors came along, becoming the new lightning rod for talking heads. One would think that Lutz would be grateful for that, but he feels the world should know what he considers to be the inevitable truth about Musk’s company.

This time, Lutz took to Road & Track to blast Tesla, saying that the electric automaker looks like it’s a “company in trouble.” That flies in the face of literally hundreds if not thousands of glowing media reports about Tesla’s products, public perception and future. Lutz isn’t convinced, saying that the company is losing money like crazy, plus has trouble with “securitized assets, and mounting inventory.”

Getting the Gigafactory in Nevada churning out batteries will undoubtedly help relieve much of the bottlenecking going on in Tesla’s distribution model. Still, it can’t sell cars in a number of states, and competing automakers are starting to hone in on the electric vehicle market. Lutz thinks that once fully-electric models from the likes of Porsche and BMW are available, consumers will turn from Tesla.

Lutz says he’s reading the writing on the wall, nothing more. It is a fact that Tesla is still in the read, but it’s a new automaker that’s establishing itself in the market. Many claim that with the upcoming release of the Model 3 this problem will be corrected. Musk says that his company is “demand-constrained” with customers having to wait sometimes months at a time to receive delivery of their purchase. Lutz does agree that a small, affordable model would save the company, but he thinks it should be a range-extended hybrid, not an all-electric car. That will never happen on Musk’s watch.