Houston Cars

In a recent interview with Inside Line, VW powertrain chief Wolfgang Hatz mentioned his disdain for hybrids:

Hybrid technology is a very expensive way to save a small amount of fuel. The cost/benefit analysis is quite on the expensive side, but we’re politically pressed to develop hybrids by the U.S. market.
If someone said that every car must be a hybrid, the car industry would be bankrupt quicker than anything else. Even Toyota would have problems if they had to produce hybrids in high volumes. But politically we have to do a certain amount of hybrids.

One has to wonder - are these his actual feelings on the subject, or is he a little bitter the VW is way behind on the hybrid game - they currently have zero hybrid vehicles on the market.  Sounds like a little bit of “sour grapes” mentality to me - we don’t have hybrids, therefore hybrids are bad.

If your company missed the boat on a type of vehicle, suck it up and admit your failure.  Better yet, get some product in the pipeline as quick as can be, so that you can get in on the growing market.  Don’t simply dismiss the entire segment - no one is fooled.