GM Forms Hybrid, Electric Vehicle Engineering Group
By Terry Kosdrosky, Dow Jones Newswires /
Detroit, Dow Jones, January 24, 2008
Source: Money.CNN.com
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/
200801241243DOWJONESDJONLINE001053_FORTUNE5.htm
General Motors Corp. (GM), looking to bring fuel- efficient, advanced vehicles to market more quickly, formed a new engineering group to focus on hybrid vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles and battery technology. The move comes as GM and other auto makers are under more pressure from governments and consumers to improve fuel mileage and reduce emissions. GM is working to bring a commercially viable, electrically driven car, the Chevrolet Volt, to market by the end of 2010.
The new global team at GM will be led by Robert Kruse, executive director of vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries. Teams will be based in North America, Europe and Asia. The new engineering team will work to develop vehicles using a variety of advanced propulsion systems such as gasoline-electric hybrids, and the E-Flex system that the auto maker plans to use in the Chevy Volt.
“The future of automotive transportation will be based on electrification of our vehicles,” Jim Queen, GM’s group vice president of Global Engineering, said in a statement. “By having a vehicle engineering team in place and focused on delivering the technical aspects of hybrids and E-REVs, we can accelerate these programs and get them into production quickly and efficiently.”
The team will be responsible for working on production versions of GM’s advanced powertrain vehicles such as the Chevrolet Tahoe and Silverado two-mode hybrids, Chevrolet Malibu hybrid, Saturn Vue two-mode plug-in hybrid, Saturn Vue and Aura Hybrid, GMC Yukon and Sierra two-mode hybrid and Cadillac Escalade two- mode hybrid.
Shares of GM were down 2.1% to $25.17 recently.