Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bob Lutz/ Courtesy: Lutz Communications

You make the case for seeing the big picture. How does that apply to developing the cars of the future and alternatives to gas, keeping in mind that there’s no set formula for success?
A great idea whose time has not yet come is just not going to succeed. Picture a surfer trying to catch a wave. If he gets on that board and starts paddling before the wave is near him, he’s not going to go anywhere. If he waits until after the wave crests, he’s not going to go anywhere. And I think that is a very nice analogy for products and business ideas. You’ve got to be there just when it’s beginning to happen.
     When we did the EV-1, GM’s first foray into electric cars in the 90’s, it was just a resounding flop. Nobody wanted it, despite Chris Paine’s film of the handful of fanatics who were very angry when we took the car away from them [“Who Killed the Electric Car?”].

More recently, you helped spearhead the development of the lithium-ion-powered vehicle at GM.
Maybe someday we’ll have fuel cell cars, but right now they’re technically feasible but not commercially feasible. I wanted something that was closer in and which would have the latest high storage capacity battery technology, which of course is lithium-ion. And it was roundly pooh-poohed by our competitors when we showed the first concept car of the Chevy Volt. But I was highly motivated to do this car.