NEW YORK — Dan Akerson is hardly a corporate diplomat.

The chairman and chief executive at General Motors says publicly what other CEOs say in private: he disses competitors' cars and laments his company's lumbering bureaucracy. He's told reporters that Ford should "sprinkle holy water" on its troubled Lincoln luxury brand, and has called Toyota's Prius hybrid a "geek-mobile." His candor often rattles GM's public relations staff.

And you know what makes him really mad?

"There is a resistance to change" at GM, Akerson said in a recent interview.

By all accounts, though, the auto giant is moving at a faster pace under his leadership as he tries to overcome the resistance.

Akerson is not the first to complain about GM's bureaucracy. But for the first time in years, the automaker has somebody at the top with an outsider's vision and a will to make changes to keep profits flowing and return the company to the glory years of a generation ago.

GM now has a lineup of cars and trucks that is selling well, and it has turned a profit for nearly two years straight. The stock, although trading far below analysts' targets, is once again catching the eye of portfolio managers.

Yet for Akerson, who took the CEO job 15 months ago, the work has just begun, and it hasn't gone totally as planned. He's being tested by a federal investigation into Chevrolet Volt battery fires that broke out seven or more days after government crash tests. Leaking battery coolant likely caused the fires. He's also grappling to fix GM's high-cost European operations.

Akerson was recruited by the federal government to join GM's board in 2009 just as the company was leaving bankruptcy protection. The government was majority owner at the time, and Akerson thought his management, financial and engineering skills — he's the former head of XO Communications — could help a company so important to the U.S. economy.

The U.S. Naval Academy graduate, who grew up in Minnesota, admits he knew little about cars in the beginning. But now he speaks with authority on everything from transmissions to batteries.

Akerson spoke about the car industry, the economy, his management style and the future of electric cars. Excerpts appear below, edited for length and clarity.

Q: Do you think the news about the Chevy Volt will harm sales of electric vehicles?

A: This car is safe. There is nothing happening immediately after the crash. I think in the interest of General Motors, the industry, the electrification of the car, it's better to get it right now, when you have 6,000 — instead of 60,000 or 600,000 — cars on the road.

We're not the only car company that has liquid-cooled batteries out there. So we think this is the right thing to do for our customers, first and foremost, and it was the right thing to do for General Motors and the industry. (GM has said no Volts have caught fire in real-world crashes).

Q: Are you moving past the early technology adopters on the Volt at this point?

A: The average purchaser of a Volt is earning $170,000 a year. About a third of the customers haven't been in a Chevy store in more than five years and half have never been in there. They aren't just early adopters.

Some of them — I think roughly half — are either Prius or BMW owners. So you could say Prius owners were probably early adopters in the olden days, but that's kind of passed through. But BMW people want styling, good design, and an innovative powertrain, and I think Volt is a game changer.

Q: When are we going to see the electric car as the typical family car?

A: We want to ramp Volt production to roughly 60,000 in 2012. By this summer we will (be in) what I call the second generation, where we will achieve certain scale and we should see an appreciable drop in the cost of the production of the Volt.

Q: You're gaining market share and your sales are going well. Why is your stock price so far below the initial public offering price? (GM's stock price closed Friday at $20.50, compared with its IPO price of $33 a share in November 2010.)

A: That's bothering me. But at the same time, our industry — when I look at Ford, I look at us — we're all down about the same amount, within a percent or two. I don't say that because I take pride in it, it's just sometimes you can't fight city hall or trends in the marketplace.

General Motors has made good progress, but we're not nearly what I think we are capable of being. We have a lot of potential. This is not a quarterly or a yearly project. This is something we're going to do over the next three to five years. We have exceeded (Wall) Street expectations so far this year on revenue and profits. I'm proud of that. I'm not happy about the stock, and we're going to do our best to make it better.

But at the end of the day, we need to continue to build great cars that delight — surprise and delight — that have quality, reliability and durability. And in the end, I think it'll take care of itself.

I have a lot of sleepless nights, but I would say four out of five are on what I would call operational and practitioner issues and the others are about, "Why is the stock not doing better?" But I only can address the things I can manage, and I can't manage that.

Q: So you don't spend a lot of time sleeping?

A: I rarely sleep past 4:30 or 5. I've always been an early riser, but I get up so I can talk to the folks in Asia before they get too far into their day. It's the best job I've ever had. It's the most fascinating industry I've ever been in.

Q: How has the corporate culture changed at GM since you joined the board?

A: I would say, objectively, having been in the company in one form or another now for almost two and half years, that 90 percent of what we did was good. There is tremendous commitment and loyalty to this company. But 10 percent or 5 percent — I don't know how to quantify it precisely — failed.

Recognize what went wrong, learn from it, move on. The way I describe it to our folks is it's like that squirrel of an uncle you have in your family. You just say, "He's there and we're just going to accept that." I can't change the bankruptcy. It's our interesting past. It's our family collage, if you will. I don't want to obsess on it, but I want to learn from it. And that's the mantra that we have as a team.

So I would say we're making good progress, we're doing surveys on people. What do they see right? What do they see wrong? How do they view the management? We want to know. I want to know. I want to move to the second floor, down with the real people. So in many ways we're trying to change the culture.

Q: What makes you the maddest as a CEO?

A: There is a resistance to change. And I don't know about you, but I mean, I'm a much different person — ask my wife — than I was when we got married. We've been married 40 years. We not only look different, and I think we're just as much in love as we were when we first got married, but we changed. Everybody changes.

Every corporation has to change, or it dies. You lose your competitive edge. There's a real strong competitive gene at General Motors. I would say you have to meet the market on its terms. I don't like where our stock is. Well, what can I do about it? Execute on the fundamentals, and the market will change and appreciate that. But at the end of the day, you have to create a culture that not only accepts change but seeks out how to change.

Q: How long do you plan on staying at GM?

A: I bought a condo in Detroit. I like the company. I like the city. I like the industry and I guess as long as I'm having fun and the board wants me, the management is willing to follow, I'll stay.