General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz spoke at the annual Automotive Interiors Conference in Detroit yesterday, offering insight into where interior design is headed for the automaker. While a great exterior may be the “visual gate” that attracts a consumer to a car, the interior is the part that “either seals the deal or drives the customer away,” he said. While GM has been criticized for weak interiors, the cabin is “the last place in the world where you want to advertise the cheapness of your product,” he said. Even for inexpensive cars, interiors should be respectable, he said. “The whole point is to get as much value to the customer for as little investment and piece cost as possible.” Lutz said a $20,000 car should have a “$30,000-looking interior.”
Power outlets: “He who has the most wins”
When it came to talking specifics, Mr. Lutz said he expects to see a greater number of power outlets in future cars. “Power outlets are the new cup holders,” he said. “He who has the most wins.” While Lutz might not be gadget crazy, he knows there is a demand. “Personally, I don’t feel the need to drive down the highway with a full array of electronic devices buzzing away. Nevertheless, the outlets are in demand.”
“They want to plug in their phones, they want a baby bottle warmer, [and] the ubiquitous radar detector,” he said. “We’re starting to see more 115 volt outlets to plug a laptop into,” he said.
iDrive can “drive people insane”
Lutz insisted electronic controls remain simple to use. Complicated computer-based systems “were invented for one reason, and one reason only,” he said. “To drive people insane.”
“We’ve adopted a lot of needless complexity,” he said. “I simply won’t have it.”
“I’m sure the creators thought they were simplifying things,” Lutz said of devices like BMW ’s iDrive. “But the menu is our memory. We’re used to having certain controls in certain places.”
Two-inch-thick seats
Slim seats are in GM’s future, according to Lutz. Lutz said GM will use slimmer concept-car-like seats to increase interior space in its future cars. The next Cadillac CTS may be one of GM’s first cars to use this type of seating, he said. Anything beyond 2 inches is a “total waste of space,” he said. Typical seats are anywhere from five to eight inches thick.
Design-driven again
GM has become “a design driven company again,” Lutz commented. “We want to create emotional appeal.” He said when GM’s design department “ruled” GM, “we made lots of money and had a 50 percent share.”
