GM opens R&D center in China

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PT1

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Nice...like there are only 10,000 unemployed engineers in Detroit. Too bad we are paying for it.
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SHANGHAI, China — General Motors has announced it is setting up a China Science Lab that will carry out automotive-related R&D. This is the first major science lab set up in the country by a "global automaker," GM says.

The technology developed there will be used in GM's products worldwide and is aimed at creating "breakthrough technologies that will differentiate GM vehicles in the marketplace," said GM Global R&D Vice President Alan Taub. The lab will mainly focus on advanced propulsion technology but will also study battery cells, "megacity" safety, light materials and advanced vehicle development. The lab will collaborate with China's universities and government-run scientific institutions.

The China Science Lab is expected to employ 100 people initially.

Inside Line says: More proof that General Motors is thinking outside the Detroit box. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
 
305,000,000 Americans, all of which already have cars.

3,000,000,000 Chinese, most of which don't have cars but want them.

Explain to me where the sales are to be made?
 
It's probably a shrewd move to bolster their standing in China. In the eyes of the Chinese government and the Chinese consumers, it will legitimize them as a company who is serious about doing business there.

Motorola and other high tech companies have been doing this for years and are accepted by the Chinese as 'one of ours'. The R&D part is limited to customizing the products to the local needs.

China lacks qualified engineers so the high tech stuff is still done in the US.
 
Quote:
This is the first major science lab set up in the country by a "global automaker," GM says.


Oh, I thought they were American.

John
 
Ford also just announced that they are building a new auto manufacturing facility in China:

http://www.freep.com/article/20090924/BU...-plant-in-China


"Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally was scheduled to announce that Ford would build the new manufacturing plant in Chongqing, China, with its partner, Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., to build cars for that market."

$490 million to build.....startup in 2012
 
GM has a pretty substantial operation in China already and it is one of the few pieces of the company that's been turning a profit in recent years.

Personally, I would have let GM fail. In all likelihood, their China operations would have found a way to buy the mothership. Either way, GM's manufacturing is moving overseas, but now us taxpayers get the luxury of paying for it instead of letting the buyer absorb the cost. This bailout of GM and Chrysler is a very temporary band-aid based more on politics than common sense. The operational problems and long-term uncompetitive nature of labor costs in the US will ultimately trump this huge government subsidy and the jobs will leave anyway.
 
Originally Posted By: Familyguy


Personally, I would have let GM fail. In all likelihood, their China operations would have found a way to buy the mothership.


Exactly, my point...after spending $60 billion on them..we can watch them leave...along with our money. Now they are saying they won't be able to pay most of it back? This is a total insult to the US taxpayer. I would have let them fail as well. No more GM anything for me. Never ever.
 
Originally Posted By: PT1
Originally Posted By: Familyguy


Personally, I would have let GM fail. In all likelihood, their China operations would have found a way to buy the mothership.


Exactly, my point...after spending $60 billion on them..we can watch them leave...along with our money. Now they are saying they won't be able to pay most of it back? This is a total insult to the US taxpayer. I would have let them fail as well. No more GM anything for me. Never ever.


Yeah. I'd consider one of their vehicles if they produced one that I thought was worthwhile (like the Vette, but it's not practical for me until the kids are older). Anyone who thinks this bailout was going to "save jobs" is deluding themselves. It's just short-term political patronage and ultimately will be a taxpayer gift to whoever ends up owning GM's assets in the future.

I would have preferred that the government seeded companies like Tesla who are better managed and stand a better chance of being nimble enough to be globally competitive.
 
Originally Posted By: CivicFan


Motorola and other high tech companies have been doing this for years and are accepted by the Chinese as 'one of ours'. The R&D part is limited to customizing the products to the local needs.


Motorola farms out all manufacturing work to Foxconn which is Chinese as does HP, Apple, Lexmark, Cisco, and Dell. Sony too is farming out more work to Chinese or Taiwanese OEMs, they sold most of their TV plant in Mexico to Foxconn as well. Heck, even the laptop you're using was probably made by Asus, Quanta, Compal or MiTac which hail out of Taiwan.
 
Originally Posted By: nthach
Originally Posted By: CivicFan


Motorola and other high tech companies have been doing this for years and are accepted by the Chinese as 'one of ours'. The R&D part is limited to customizing the products to the local needs.


Motorola farms out all manufacturing work to Foxconn which is Chinese as does HP, Apple, Lexmark, Cisco, and Dell. Sony too is farming out more work to Chinese or Taiwanese OEMs, they sold most of their TV plant in Mexico to Foxconn as well. Heck, even the laptop you're using was probably made by Asus, Quanta, Compal or MiTac which hail out of Taiwan.


That is not entirely correct and you missed one big one
wink.gif


1. Intel's motherboards are produced by Foxconn. (that was the big one, lol)

2. HP and Compaq motherboards are primarily made by ASUS or MSI, depending on the "trim level"; higher-end models have the ASUS boards. Foxconn may make the chassis' and cables though.

3. ASUS also makes numerous products for Apple, though I assume Foxconn may make more of them. ASUS's primary role here as I understand it, is the laptops.

4. Foxconn, like ASUS, is Taiwanese. Both of them have (very successful) manufacturing facilities in China however. Foxconn has had a facility in China longer than ASUS AFAIK.
 
A long as folks without any secondary education and/or specialized skills think they're "entitled" to make $20-30/hour (or more!) + fat union bennies to bolt pieces of metal or plastic together, there is going to continue to be an exodus of manufacturing out of the United States. That is just absurd. We live in a global economy and there are people with similar educational backgrounds living in places with low costs of living that will do the EXACT same work for 80-90% less per hour.
 
Well this just reinforces what I have been saying all along! Anyone that thinks the people at the top of GM care about "Buying AMerican" or "Re-Investing in America" are naive and just not thinking. Both GM corperate and the Unions have used the "Buy American" slogan when ever it worked to their advantage but nothing ever was allowed to get between profits if it could be helped on either side! I live in GM country and nothing makes me laugh more then when I see a GM pickup truck in a guys yard that I know works for GM with the "Buy American" bumper sticker useing his Koren or CHineese built lawn and garrden tractor......Maybe those guys over at JohnDeere would have liked him to have purchased American too so they could keep their job!LOL I have witnessed to many hypocrites in Corperate,Union and rite on down the line! All the electronics under a hood of anything GM partialy assembles in the USA has electronics made in China,Japan,Europe, Engines and Axles made and largely assembled in Mexico,Canada and else where. Then all these parts that have already been cast,machined,assembled outside the USA come into the plant either by Tractor Trailer or Train for final assembly and that is what is called and American vehicle!!!LOL Maybe someone else will buy that but not me!

The only people that invest in the USA are foreign companies that want to get around our countries Tariffs. I guess all the people in Texas,Indiana,Alabahama, and all the other places int he USA where forgin companies pay Americans to build vechiles should be greatful we have tarrifs or they would not have jobs like most of the people in Michigan becasue GM,FORD and Chrysler have not been reliable for years for consistent work!

Too many old Union members sitting in Job Banks with nothing to do! This meant that anyone under 50 pretty much had to work for a contract house that provided workers to these companies at a huge savings versus being directly hired in to these companies. THis meant ever 1-2 years as one contract house lost the contract you had to try and resecure your job with the new contract house that won the contract from GM,Ford, or Chrysler etc......


So in my lifetime I have never known any "Good time" sure I had deadbeat uncles making $24 an hour before over time, or benefits where factored in to do a job that everyone else in America would be lucky to get $9 an hour to do and no benefits but I have not known anyone my age or younger to prosper from the big three. In fact all of my friends and all of my alumni have moved away from Michigan!

Greed in the end killed Flint,Lansing,Detroit, Pontiac and many other cities in Michigan that had powerful automotive production at one point! The combination of greed from Managment,Union and loval government killed the industry plane and simple. And anyone that thinks that the last two bail outs really did much are dreaming the industry is still going to get even worse before it gets any better. GM did not fall far enough and did not make enough changes to really pull itself out of the hole it has dug! I am sure I am right and will be saying I told you so since I predicted all of the stuff that has happened so far as far back as 2003!
 
I knew that - but didn't Intel buy out STB in Mexico that was making NVidia and 3DFX's reference boards and Intel's motherboards? And Foxconn makes the iPhone, iPod, iMac, Mac Mini and the Apple TV/Time Capsule as well. Quanta is now making the entire MacBook lineup.

I believe Asus was Apple and Sony's partner of choice, but Asus decided to make it on their own with laptops, hence why Quanta is now handling their production needs.
 
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