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Will GM Really Hire More EV Engineers?

Posted December 06, 2010 9:00 AM by Steve Melito

Dan Akerson drove onstage in the first production Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle with extended range capability. Workers at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant greeted him with cheers, but it's Michigan's engineering community that could give GM's CEO a standing ovation. "Starting today and continuing from 2011 into 2012," Akerson said last week, "GM will be hiring 1,000 new engineers and researchers from here in Michigan to help with things such as R&D and the development of motors and battery technology".

General Motors plans to sell 10,000 Chevy Volts in 2011 and 45,000 in 2012 before expanding its range from North America to Europe and Asia. But does the U.S. automaker's electric vehicle (EV) strategy have enough juice? Although the company (and U.S. taxpayers) will invest more than $700 million in eight Michigan operations to support Volt operations, nearly half ($336 million) will be for the Detroit-Hamtramck factory alone. According to Akerson, most of the 1000 engineers and researchers that GM plans to hire would work at the company's technical center in Warren, Michigan.

Does GM have the right stuff to be a leader in electric vehicles?

Source: Automotive News

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#1

Re: Will GM Really Hire More EV Engineers?

12/06/2010 2:23 PM

Well, hiring 1,000 new workers will help take a big bite out of the current 15,100,000 unemployed Americans looking for work.

Look, I think the spin about the number of new jobs is simply nonsense with respect to the bigger picture.

I hope that GM makes a success out of the Volt, but GM is going to need to sell a lot of Volts to pay back $700,000,000 dollars in investment.

I have no idea how much profit is in each car, but it probably is a lot less than their other vehicles. Let's say that they get $5,000 profit for each vehicle. It's a wild guess, I know.

GM will not break even until 140,000 vehicles are sold.

At those rates I can't see the Volt as a money making machine, but maybe it will help pave the way for newer and better things.

Oh, the way this reads, the $700,000,000 is just for supporting operations of the Volt. I have no idea how much money was invested to date just to get the vehicle design released.

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#3
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Re: Will GM Really Hire More EV Engineers?

12/14/2010 8:20 PM

1,000 Engineers: Where From? Over Seas? Entrepreneurs? Colleges? The ones in the UNEMPLOYMENT LINE; are LOOSERS. How much $ does an ENGINEER get Paid? By The Hour or on Consignment? Will they offer more pay than everyone else? ( A VOLT to drive?)

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#2

Re: Will GM Really Hire More EV Engineers?

12/07/2010 8:57 PM

Looking at what they have produced so far I just assumed they didn't have real EV engineers to begin with.

I was under the impression all they had was engineering wannabes and flunkies working for them.

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