Wagoner: “Quit Whining” - Richard Wagoner, General Motors Corp., speaks on forecasts for automobile industry - Industry Overview
An avowed environmentalist (who nonetheless heads a company that sells its share of fuel-needy full-size SUVs), Ford says that by 2004 cars will run 99% cleaner and require half as much fuel as cars of the 1960s.
Indeed, the industry is in “an all-out incentive war,” says Ford.
Here’s his checklist on how the industry can do the wrong things:
He spoke at a J.D. Power & Associates’ conference along with two other top auto executives: Ford Motor Co. CEO and Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group COO Wolfgang Bernhard.
“Fail to support government efforts to stimulate the economy.”
Cleaner cars offer a competitive advantage. They’ll be part of the industry’s “next big battle ground,” Ford says. “That will be a challenge for auo companies, but great for customers, and that’s the way it should be.”
He says that Ford Motor Co. in the late 1990s, as it sought growth in other areas, “took our eye off the ball,” allowing competitors to take advantage of that.