The second phase of the General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) China Advanced Technical Center (ATC), the most comprehensive advanced automotive technology development center in China, is on track to open in the second half of 2012.
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General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) may trace its roots back to 1908, but with 11 joint ventures, two wholly owned foreign enterprises and more than 35,000 employees in China, GM is expanding further into the largest auto market in the world with an advanced technical center.
For the record, GM has other tech centers around the globe. The most notable is the Warren Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. Another center resides in Germany with Opel. However, this new technical center in China will likely be the most modern.
It will complement the first phase of the ATC, the Advanced Materials Laboratory, which opened in September and is engaged in research and development of battery cells and lightweight materials. GM China's new battery testing facility is fully operational, with commissioning and correlation tests finished.
For the record, the lab has been carrying out testing of different submissions from selected Chinese battery suppliers. Completion of testing is targeted for the first quarter of next year, after which the submissions will be put through GM’s rigorous global battery qualification process.
More on Phase II
Adjacent to the GM China International Operations and GM China Headquarters in Shanghai, the second phase of the two-phase ATC will focus on advanced design, vehicle engineering, advanced powertrain development, urban mobility and manufacturing processes. Construction began in late summer and is about one-fourth complete.
“The establishment of the ATC is proof of GM's commitment to advanced technology leadership,” said GM China Group President and Managing Director Kevin Wale. “Our local team is cooperating with GM teams around the globe to come up with solutions for sustainable development that will benefit China and the world.”
The 65,000-square-meter ATC will serve as the home of four key GM technical and design organizations: the China Science Lab, Vehicle Engineering Lab, Advanced Powertrain Engineering Lab and Advanced Design Center. When complete it will include 62 test labs and nine research labs, and have more than 300 employees, including engineers, designers, researchers and technicians.
In November, the ATC hosted the first GM Global Research and Development Symposium. Sixteen world-leading experts from academic institutions, industry and government organizations presented their cutting-edge research findings. The activity attracted more than 150 professors, researchers, engineers and graduate students as well as representatives from GM’s joint ventures and suppliers.
About the Reporter: After 39 years in the auto industry as a design engineer, Frank Sherosky now trades stocks, futures and writes articles, books and ebooks like, "Perfecting Corporate Character," "Awaken Your Speculator Mind", and "Millennial World Order" via authorfrank.com. He may be contacted here by email: FrankS@TorqueNews.com and followed in Twitter under @Authorfranks
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