GM Announces Plans to Hire 1,000 Engineers
November 30, 2010As yet another indication that the industry is resurging, GM announced they will be hiring 1,000 new engineers to research and develop electric, hybrid, and other advanced technologies. Granted, the company has gone through a restructuring and shed many jobs in the process during the past few years. However, as we have been pointing out in the last few months, the industry and its support companies are seeing growth in demand for their products and new technologies. This growth, in turn, has led to an increased need for qualified staff.
This announcement is a clear sign of the domestic companies allocating much needed resources toward advanced technologies. When these new products are developed and brought into production, many communities throughout the region will surely benefit.
The text below is from an article in The Detroit Free Press, dated November 30, 2010.
GM to hire 1,000 to boost electric vehicle efforts
By CHRISSIE THOMPSON
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
General Motors plans to hire 1,000 electric-vehicle engineers and researchers in Michigan over the next two years as it prepares to deliver the first Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric cars next month.
Volt production started early this month, as reported by the Free Press. GM will keep the first Volt off the line to display in its Heritage Center in Sterling Heights. The company will auction off the second Volt at www.bidonthevolt.com, with proceeds to benefit math and science education at Detroit Public Schools, North American President Mark Reuss said today at a media event at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant.
GM first announced development of the Volt in 2007, following the urging of former Vice Chairman Bob Lutz to create a car that would help GM’s image as the Prius had done for Toyota. Its development continued as GM hurtled toward its 2009 bankruptcy and changed CEOs three times during its restructuring.
The finished product gets 25 to 50 miles of range from its Brownstown Township-assembled battery pack before running on a gasoline-powered generator.
“It would have been easy, given everything that General Motors has been through in the last couple of years, to let the Volt die, but you didn’t let that happen. It would have been easy to scale the Volt back and make it a battery-only vehicle, but you didn’t let that happen, either,” CEO Dan Akerson said.
He gave Detroit-Hamtramck workers “V” for “Volt” signs when he arrived onstage in the first Volt. Lutz made a cameo appearance by arriving in the second Volt.
GM plans to build 10,000 Volts by the end of 2011 and at least 45,000 in 2012. Akerson said he has a “gut feeling” that demand will require additional Volts in 2012, so the company is studying ways to increase production.
Initially, the Volt will sell in California, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas. Next spring, those markets will expand to include Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut and the rest of New York and Texas. Within a year and a half, GM plans to sell the Volt nationwide.
GM has consistently declined to release the number of Volt orders, but more than 240,000 people have already indicated their interest in buying a vehicle by registering to receive production information on the Web, Reuss said.
The company also plans to start exporting the Volt to Europe next year as the Opel Ampera, but Reuss said vehicles sold overseas would not hurt North American supply.
The biggest constraint on Volt production is battery cell production, he said. GM gets its battery cells from LG Chem in South Korea. Compact Power, LG Chem’s Troy-based subsidiary, will start making the cells in Holland, Mich., when it opens its plant there in 2012.
People can bid until 6 p.m. on Dec. 14 to get to the front of the line and buy the second Volt built. The opening bid was $50,000, but by early afternoon, the highest bid was already $80,000. The Volt’s suggested price is $41,000, not including at least $7,500 in federal and state tax credits.
Chevrolet will announce the winner on Dec. 16 and deliver the Volt that month, complete with a 240-volt charging station that allows the battery to recharge in four hours instead of eight to 10 via a standard 120-volt outlet.
Along with building enough Volts, GM’s other challenge is pressing engineers to cut the cost of the Volt to make it profitable.
The new electrification engineers announced today include an undetermined number of contract workers, spokesman Kevin Kelly said in an e-mail. The hiring continues a trend started in mid-January, when GM began hiring college graduates and experienced engineers, focusing on green technologies, hybrids and electric vehicles.
By September, the automaker had added 200 electrification engineers and at that time had 50 more openings, said Micky Bly, who heads GM’s electric vehicle, hybrid and battery development.
Electric-vehicle engineers often bring youth to GM’s engineering staff, which aged as the automaker cut back on hiring during its financial difficulties. The median age of a GM electrification engineer is 27, Bly said in September. The median age of all vehicle engineers is 47, he said.
