Aug 12, 2008

General Motors Invests in Tech

Gasoline prices are shooting through the roof. The auto market in the United States is at its lowest ebb in decades, and consumers don’t know quite which way to turn. General Motors -- now, tellingly, the second-largest automaker in the world -- has dialed up the juice on technical expertise in a bid to regain its accustomed-to top spot. 

In an effort to be more efficient in the design and engineering of state-of-the-art engines and transmissions that will be right for the new world of higher energy prices, General Motors has opened a brand-new, global Powertrain Engineering Development Center in Pontiac, Mich. The facility will bring advanced, fuel-saving powertrains to market faster and cheaper by cutting its development process by 10 weeks and reducing test procedure time from 24 hours to as little as 20 minutes. Combined with other global development and testing efficiencies already under way, the company will save more than $200 million cumulatively by the end of this year, it says.

The new development center will also be the site where GM engineers will test the forthcoming Chevrolet Volt's electric drive unit, motors, power electronics and engine, plus electric motors for fuel cell and hybrid powertrains and other advanced gasoline, biofuel and clean diesel engines and transmissions. It is the model for 11 additional GM powertrain laboratories around the globe.