I love, love, love this sort of quote, though this one is made in a very thoughtful way. Bob Lutz has a lot of experience in this market, is the former Vice Chairman of GM, knows the industry inside and out. But he doesn’t know Apple, hasn’t see the disruption up close and personal.

Two highlights from the interview:

If I were a shareholder, I’d be very upset because they are currently engaged in a very high margin business [referring to consumer electronics]. The automobile business, at best, is a very low margin business. You can’t show me one company in the world that, to date, has made a nickel on electric cars. They’re generally money losers and the only reason that everybody is producing them is because they are necessary to meet European fuel economy regulations and US fuel economy regulations.

There is no reason to assume that Apple will be financial successful in the electric car business.

Spoken from the present, about the past. True, but not recognizing the massive disruption on its way.

When asked why Apple would enter this business, Lutz shook his head ruefully, and said:

Apple has no expertise in batteries. They don’t make batteries. The specialized electro-chemical companies make batteries and Apple is going to buy batteries like everybody else. When it comes to actually making cars, there is no reason to assume that Apple, with no experience, will suddenly do a better job than General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota, or Hyundai. I think this is going to be a gigantic money pit.

It’s all been said before, most notably about the iPhone. Palm CEO Ed Collegian famously said this about the iPhone that would soon eat his lunch:

“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”

Here we go again. My money’s on Apple.