Mr. Bob Lutz said that “everyone outside of Detroit thinks of Detroit as dumb”. He was talking to the CBS correspondent, Lesley Stahl, about the Volt, Tesla Motors and its electric car, the Roadster.

But I don’t agree with Mr. Lutz. People outide of Detroit don’t think Detroit is dumb, but people in and out of Detroit do wonder why Detroit has been unable to make fuel efficient vehicles or ones that run on alternative fuel.

And people especially wonder why the brains in Detroit didn’t come up with something like the “Roadster”, made by Tesla Motors of Califoria. (Remember how we always boast that we have one of the most educated and technical workforces in the country?)

The Roadster uses no oil and runs on over 6000 finger sized laptop batteries. It is a bit out of my price range at 109K but you know what, that’s not the issue!

The issue is that if a startup like Tesla Motors can come up with a viable electric vehicle, why couldn’t Detroit’s best technical brains do the same? Yeah, yeah, I know the Volt hybrid is on its way but that’s still not coming out till 2010. That is, if it does make it’s production schedule….

Mr. Lutz admitted in his interview that it was embarrassing that an engineer in California could do what engineers in Detroit couldn’t. Well, he and all other highly paid executives at the Big Three should be embarrassed that Tesla Motors is giving them a run for their money.

The Big Three better hustle or Tata and Toyota may be the next ones flooding the US market with cheaper alternatives to the “Roadster”.