Tesla Vehicles 'Attacked' With New Lies From Former Car Boss

Former General Motors executive and now automotive critic Bob Lutz has taken a swipe at Tesla Inc., claiming that the EV company is “doomed” and could soon face bankruptcy.

During a recent interview with Handelszeitung regarding his former boss Lee Iacocca who recently passed away, Lutz also commented on his views on Tesla’s recent Q2 success.

“The fate of Tesla is sealed. The situation is almost hopeless given the losses they are currently writing. Demand has given away. Tesla had 400,000 pre-orders for the Model 3. In fact, they only sold 80,000 or 90,000 of them, and they have trouble selling more. The Model S is now ten years old, and sales are sluggish. It’s the same picture for the Model X, the SUV with the wing doors – that’s an ugly vehicle anyway. Tesla will have about a year until each of the big global auto companies has its own fleet of electric vehicles on offer. These cars will be as good or even better than Tesla’s,” he said.

This is seen as an odd statement, especially after the car critic actually praised Elon Musk’s company recently in his opinion piece, saying that Tesla EVs have significantly improved its build quality. It is not surprising, however, since Lutz is the same person who believes that electric vehicles are the car of the future but at the same time has also been lobbying for the slow down of EV deployment in the U.S.

At any rate, Electrek reported that Lutz’ recent tirades are nothing more than lies. In a report, it was pointed out that the former GM executive was wrong in his figures and calls out Lutz for lying about Tesla.

For one, it was wrong to say that Musk’s company only managed to sell 80,000 to 90,000 Model 3 vehicles. In fact, the company was able to deliver 145,000 Model 3 vehicles in 2018 and is expected to double the figures this year.

The Model S sales, on the other hand, is indeed sluggish but the report pointed out that the car is not 10 years old but is in fact, 7 years old. Sluggish sales, however, can be attributed to the fact that people prefer the Model 3 more and with the upcoming commercial launch of the Model Y, Tesla numbers are expected to go up even more.