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“Our customers around the world
agree we need to reduce our dependence on petroleum and reduce
vehicle carbon emissions,” said Jim Federico, vehicle line
executive for GM global small cars and electric vehicles. “We
are working aggressively on vehicle electrification and other
technologies, but the most immediate progress will come from
continually improving the internal combustion engine.”
The global engine family consolidation is
part of GM’s larger product development strategy to reduce engineering
and manufacturing complexity and cost while improving competitiveness,
efficiency and quality.
For example, to reduce engineering and
manufacturing complexity, the engines will be designed and built using a
modular approach with interchangeable global components. This also
provides more flexibility for global vehicle programs.
Production is expected to begin
mid-decade. The engines will be introduced in GM global vehicle programs
across multiple vehicle architectures in various regions, through the
end of the decade. Manufacturing locations and production timing will be
announced later.
The new engine family is the result of an
engineering partnership between GM and the Shanghai Automotive Industry
Corp. (SAIC), Shanghai General Motors (SGM) and the Pan Asia Technical
Automotive Center (PATAC). |
