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GM's Fritz Henderson Prognosticates Today in Detroit
Chris Vander Doelen • Windsor Star
Jan 29, 2008 • April 2, 2020 • 3 minute read
Can the people who designed this cartoon duckmobile really be a threat to Detroit?
GM's Fritz Henderson Prognosticates Today in Detroit Back to video
Off to Detroit in an hour or so to listen to the financial forecasts for the auto biz from Fritz Henderson, the number three guy at General Motors. Henderson is chief financial officer, and is also a vice chairman, and I've never heard him speak in public.
Henderson will be speaking at the Detroit Athletic Club to the Automotive Press Association about how he reads the economic outlook for 2008.
From what he's told local Michigan newspapers lately, he's holding fast to the view that a recession is not necessarily in the cards for the U.S. or the world. I guess we'll see.
People over here don't agree. They're calling for a "severe recession" this year to counteract the American "credit orgy" of the last decade. Makes sense to me.
Was out late last night at dinner with Dr. Tony Faria, the University of Windsor marketing prof and auto industry analyst, and Dr. Alan Conway, head of the Odette School of Business. The meal was a thank-you for talking to a couple of Faria's business classes for a couple of hours at the end of the day yesterday.
I usually take my old Kodak 3900 digital around the show floor at the end of the media days during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and shoot 100 or so images of the important stuff, and the stuff I like. The digital record accidentally became the basis for a review of the show when Faria asked me to speak to his class a few years ago, so I make sure to get the pics now. Besides, they come in handly on this blog.
The class was unusually attentive, I thought. Lots of knowledgeable "car-guy" type questions from some of the motorheads in the room at the end.
(I didn't know the enviro-religionists are now trying to ban the use of leaded gasoline in dragsters and funny cars — even though aviators will be permitted to continue to use lead in their go-juice. I guess that's so the Greenpeacers can still fly to international conferences to denounce people who drive cars).
The car at the top of this blog is one of the shots I showed the class from the NAIAS. It's called Book of Songs, by China's Tang Hua brand. The manufacturer is a company called Jing Shi Guang Ming Automobile Design Co. Ltd. of Beijing — of the 100-plus (and rapidly growing number of home-grown Chinese carmakers. I've written about the Chinese automotive industryin today's Windsor Star here, and again here in my column.
The car, if that's what it is classified as, weighs 500 kg and sells for $8,500 in lithium-powered form — or about as much as a custom golf cart. Jalopnik, the car bloggers, linked to their own photo here.
A lead-acid battery version of the same vehicle can be had for a mere $5,200, the companies say. They had several other equally bizarre designs on display, including one called Little Piece of Cloud. How would the ad campaign for that one play out, I wonder.
I admit I mocked this little yellow duckmobile thing mercilessly in front of the class. It's a cartoon car. Which market segment are they after, Disneyworld? Circus clowns? (Left-wing municipal politicians, maybe).
You can't even begin to address the cultural clash between the people who designed and named this car and the market they think they can access. (For instance: aren't more than 50 per cent of North Americans either too tall or too obese to fit into the Book of Songs?). But the coming clash is going to be interesting to watch.
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