Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
Former automotive czar Lee Iacocca takes a spin on an
electric bike outside his Los Angeles home. Iacocca broke
his silence in an exclusive interview with The News.
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EXCLUSIVE REPORT: Iacocca on the record
Iacocca peddles new sets of wheels
Ex-Chrysler CEO promotes line of electric bikes, cars
By Bill Vlasic / The Detroit News© Copyright 2002 The Detroit News
Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
Iacocca offers an electric vehicle for sale on the
cover of the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog.
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About
This Series Only in The Detroit News
Sunday: Former Chrysler Chairman Lee
Iacocca believes he can help revive the struggling automaker
as a senior adviser or corporate spokesman, but DaimlerChrysler
AG Chairman Juergen Schrempp has blocked his return to
Detroit.
Monday: Iacocca gives his views on
the current state of the U.S. auto industry, including Ford
Motor Co.'s struggles and General Motor Corp.'s
resurgence, and discusses why he walked away from a promising
political future in Washington.
Today: Iacocca has seen the future
and says it has a green tint. That's why he is building EV
Global Motors, a company that makes small, electric-powered
vehicles designed for gated retirement communities and
campus-like environments.
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Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
Life as a small entrepreneur has been a revelation
for Iacocca, showing a folding electric bike, a man
who headed a top 10 U.S. company and once ranked as
the country's highest-paid CEO.
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LOS ANGELES -- A local reporter in southern
California made the mistake recently of asking Lee Iacocca if his work
with electric vehicles was penance for polluting the air
during his 46-year automotive career.
What was my sin? Iacocca snapped back.
I don't apologize for anything. I built jobs and wealth and I'm
proud of it.
But even as he defends his past as chairman of
Chrysler Corp. and president of Ford
Motor Co., Iacocca puts in long hours peddling his vision of the
future: electric-powered bikes and cars for warm-weather retirement
communities and campus-like environments.
Has Iacocca, at age 77, suddenly turned
Not exactly.
If you think I spent nearly 50 years trying to
put a minivan and a Jeep in every garage and now I'm working to get
them out, you're out of your mind, he said in an exclusive
interview with The Detroit News. No, these vehicles are
complementary to a lifestyle.
Iacocca makes no secret of his desire to return to
the car wars as an adviser or spokesman for Chrysler, which was bought
in 1998 by German automaker Daimler-Benz AG.
But his appeals for a comeback have been rejected by
DaimlerChrysler AG's
chairman Juergen Schrempp.
Yet despite his retirement from Chrysler in 1992,
Iacocca has never truly exited the business of putting America on
wheels.
He founded EV Global Motors Co. five years ago to
market electric bicycles and branched out last year with Lido Motors
USA, a partnership that builds so-called neighborhood electric
vehicles, or NEVs.
The fiberglass-bodied, battery-powered Lido -- a
play on Iacocca's given first name -- is a street-legal, emission-free
car with a top speed of 25 miles per hour and capable of running 40
miles on a single six-hour charge.
While it looks like an oversized golf cart trapped
in a car body, the Lido is hardly a toy. The National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) created the NEV as a new class of motor
vehicle in 1998, and major automakers are counting on NEVs to help
them meet tough new emission standards in California and other states.
For Iacocca, electric vehicles represent a natural
progression in meeting the transportation needs of aging Americans.
From the Ford Mustang in the 1960s to the Chrysler minivan in the
1980s, Iacocca always kept his finger on the pulse of the baby-boom
generation.
You've got to stay with your market, and I
always said I followed the baby boomer," he said.
The baby boomer who was in his 20s fell in
love with the Mustang. Twenty years passed and that's when the minivan
comes out. I never got a letter saying, 'I'd like a minivan.' But when
it came out, it was a phenomenon.
With graying boomers now moving in increasing
numbers to gated retirement communities in the Sunbelt, Iacocca senses
another seismic shift coming.
People are retiring early," he said.
When you retire the first thing you do is dump your third car
because the kids are gone. There are 15,000 gated retirement
communities where you don't need an extra car."
Ever the salesman, Iacocca pitches NEVs as the ideal
vehicle for short commutes or shopping trips. But he knows that
weaning consumers from gas-powered cars won't happen overnight.
His experience with electric bikes has, so far, been
an uphill climb.
You have got to create awareness and educate
people, he said. "In the last three years I probably sold
80-to-90 percent of every electric bike sold in the world. So I've got
market share. But guess what? There's no market. You've got to create
it."
It's hardly a hobby for Iacocca. He travels
constantly to drum up investors and media interest, and manages his
small companies with the same attention that he was renowned for at
Chrysler.
His employees, for their part, are as used to his
late-night phone calls and surprise office visits as Chrysler
executives once were.
Lee really is hands-on, said Irene Di
Vito, Lido Motors' vice-president of marketing. I always say he
loves noise, and thrives on work. The only difference is when he
pushes a button, 30 people don't appear.
Life as a small entrepreneur has been a revelation
for the man who once headed one of the top 10 U.S. companies and
ranked as the country's highest-paid CEO.
Start-ups are tough, he said. I'm
managing two little companies from 30 feet instead of 30,000 feet. At
Chrysler, if you had five bad people they couldn't wreck the company.
Now if you have 20 people in total, two bad ones can wreck the
company.
So he pours over balance sheets, inspects suppliers,
and keeps close tabs on his production partner, Western Golf Car, that
manufactures the Lido in a factory near Palm Springs. Every so often,
Iacocca's legendary impatience boils over at the laid-back lifestyle
of his adopted home state of California.
I often kiddingly say that the United Auto
Workers wanted a four-day work week for five days pay, he said.
In California, they invented it. Maybe there is something to
those Midwestern values. They like to work in the Midwest.
Iacocca suffered a setback two years ago when he
linked up with another company, Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) of
North Dakota, to build demonstration versions of the Lido. But in a
bizarre episode, DaimlerChrysler bought GEM and left Iacocca out in
the cold.
His new partner is slowly cranking up production.
While Western Golf Car has manufacturing capacity of 20,000 vehicles
annually, the launch is painstakingly slow -- only 13 NEVs a day.
Still, the first Lidos are slowly garnering
attention in the bellwether electric-vehicle market of southern
California. Equipped with NHTSA-mandated safety glass, seat belts,
hydraulic brakes and headlights, the Lido is available in two-seater
and four-passenger versions, including a funky runabout
that looks like a little station wagon.
With the Lido selling for just under $10,000,
Iacocca knows that costs have to come down for it to have any mass
appeal.
But he isn't daunted. On a sunny day last month, he
hopped on one of his bikes for a spin down the driveway of his Los
Angeles home, chattering the whole time about the wonders of electric
transportation.
Later, he retreated to his wood-paneled office to
gather up pictures and brochures of the Lido. On the wall were dozens
of framed magazine covers -- Newsweek, Time, Fortune and Business Week
among others -- from Iacocca's glory days in the auto industry.
After looking through a stack of papers, he pulled
out the latest catalog from the luxury-goods retailer Hammacher
Schlemmer. On the cover was Iacocca, standing proudly next to the
Lido.
Finally, he said, I made a cover
that's important.
You can reach Bill Vlasic at (313) 222-2152 or
bvlasic@detnews.com
Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
Iacocca founded EV Global Motors Co. five years ago to
market electric bicycles and branched out last year with
Lido Motors USA, a partnership that builds so-called
neighborhood electric vehicles.
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