Bob Lutz, the 85-year old auto industry legend who has held top positions at BMW, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors, takes some issue with Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.
Speaking in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Lutz had some choice words regarding Musk’s company, Tesla. “I don’t know why it is that otherwise intelligent people can’t see what’s going on there. They lose money on every car, they have a constant cash drain, and yet everybody talks as if this is the most miraculous automobile company of all time,” he said.
But when it comes to Musk’s overall work, Lutz paid the CEO a compliment.
“Don’t get me wrong, what Musk has achieved, whether it is profitable or not, is incredible,” he said. “He’s created an automobile company based solely on electric vehicles, and they have pretty good, not yet completely reliable, autonomous capability.”
When the interview turned to Trump, Lutz said it “would have been nice to have a conservative president who is more unifying and more careful about what he says.” And if he had any influence over him, Lutz told the LA Times he would “strongly encourage” him to stop tweeting. Former Vice President Joe Biden offered a similar piece of advice on Thursday.