General Motors R&D Chief Larry Burns Sees 'Electric Drive' across Product Line

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.designnews.com/article/47485-General_Motors_R_D_Chief_Larry_Burns_Sees_Electric_Drive_across_Product_Line.php

General Motors R&D Chief Larry Burns Sees 'Electric Drive' across Product Line

GM's Larry Burns is in the hot seat to develop vehicles that run on renewable energy

John Dodge, Editor-in-Chief -- Design News, August 4, 2008

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DN: The Chevy Volt is on schedule to be "complete" by 2010. What does that mean? With 650 engineers and designers on the project, would it be fair to characterize the Volt as GM's Manhattan Project? Compare the development time of the Volt versus traditional timelines for new models. Isn't the Volt the biggest project in GM history?

Burns: By complete, we mean selling Chevrolet Volt to real customers in 2010. Volt is obviously very high-profile because of the response it has received from our customers and stakeholders, but we also have other important initiatives that, like Volt, are focused on reducing petroleum dependence through energy efficiency and diversity. These include our hybrid vehicle programs, our focus on biofuels like E85 and other electrically driven vehicles including fuel cell-electrics. We also have important projects in other areas focused on vehicle-to-vehicle communications and autonomous driving technologies, which we demonstrated with our "Boss" vehicle at the DARPA Urban Challenge. Beyond technology, we have key initiatives like growth in emerging markets.

Our development time for Volt is very aggressive, but what makes it even more aggressive is developing the battery in parallel with the car. Traditionally, we would have done the battery work first, then initiated the product program. We've chosen to do it this way to be first to market and because we believe we can pull it off.

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Overall, the battery development is on track. But one of the important challenges remaining is proving ten-year, 150,000-mile life when we're developing the battery over a three-year timeframe. Obviously, we'll protect the customer in this regard with our warranty, but we still need to prove out the required durability.

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[DCKit]

1. Does Larry Burns' billionaire cousin, Montgomery Burns, need any more money?

It's not as if Homer, Lenny, Carl and Mr. Smithers are going to get raises, pay more taxes and juice the economy.

What's the benefit to Springfield?

[last1standing]

2. I really believe that if GM and Ford get off their asses and really work at it.

They can not only turn the companies around but recreate themselves as the leaders in transportation technologies.

They just need to realize that they can only do this with the help of their employees, not by cutting jobs here while bringing up new factories in China. If they go that route, the customer loyalty they've rested on for years will continue to evaporate. They'll need that loyalty to make it through the dark years ahead.

[Indenturedebtor]

3. I'm sure that with the proper regulations they would see the light

Otherwise it will be short term profits and "business" as usual with 500 million dollar CEO salaries and outsourcing to the next slave labor camp that opens up.

Glad to see they've been forced to start doing the right thing in one arena. But fuck them. If a company that treats America and it's employees right has a vehicle thats a few grand more than the volt but with the same capabilities, I'll buy that vehicle.

FUCK YOU GM!

[JohnWxy]

4. GM and Ford are getting together to share engine technologies - at GM.s request-

I think GM wants to get at Fords ecoBoost system to sell to bring in money until the Volt starts bringing in cash.

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