What energy crisis?

Zurich – General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz said in a newspaper interview published on Thursday that US consumers still wanted to buy big, gas-guzzler cars and suggested that GM had to respond to that demand.

Lutz told the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger that the ailing US auto giant had decided this week to ramp up production of big pick-up trucks and sports utility vehicles in the United States because stocks had nearly run bare.

“It remains a fact that the American public buys big, high consumption, cars,” he said.

“It is completely wrong to hope that Americans will massively rush to economical vehicles.”

“The mass movement towards ‘green cars’ is only taking place in the media,” he added, pointing to “poor” sales of hybrid vehicles, other than the one offered by Japanese rival Toyota, and their small share of market.

AFP