A reader wrote in to share this email exchange. This is the email she sent to GM — as I understand, it’s a form letter you can sign and send from the Plugin America website.
Dear Sir,
I am tired of being held by the throat by oil companies and I want to buy a car that uses cleaner, cheaper, domestic electricity for even a part of its overall range. Saturn used to lease the most efficient vehicle ever built. Since GM destroyed all EV1s, GM has not shown progress on bringing a plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle to market. Please give me the choice to drive on electricity.
This is the response she received:
From: bob.lutz@gm.com
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 3:50 PM
Subject: Re: Alternative Fueled CarsInstead of just copying that same stupid message that I have received at least one thousand times in identical form (don’t you folks have any creative drive?), why didn’t you use your energy to research GM’s announced major effort on the range-extended Chevrolet “Volt” EV, as well as our announcement of a plug-in hybrid version of the upcoming Saturn “Vue”? Some recognition of how much and how fast we are moving in these areas would be a lot more motivating than bombarding us with that hopelessly-outdated standard letter. Thank you for thinking of us!
Bob Lutz, you’ll recall, is the CEO of GM North America. Who knew the company was so responsive? Or so cranky?
