This week marked another important step forward for the development of U.S. based automotive battery and electric vehicle manufacturing as Coda Automotive, Nissan and Ford announced plans to build batteries at plants in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan respectively.

While these facilities only exist as blueprints today, our Brownstown Township battery pack assembly plant has been manufacturing advanced lithium-ion batteries since January, and our Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant is currently producing pre-production Chevrolet Volts.

GM VP for global product development Jon Lauckner takes a petty swipe at the competition over at chevroletvoltage.com. First of all, Mr Lauckner, taking petty swipes is our job. Back off. Second of all, are you familiar with the adage that begins with “people in glass houses…”?

Read More >

As you remember,  Susan “If you know what I’m good for, answers on a postcard, please” Docherty got canned from her job of Sales and Marketing of U.S Operations, to make room for Joel Ewanick. Back then, many thought it was only a matter of time before ol’ Doperty (see what I did there?) got the ol’ heave ho from GM CEO Eddie Whitacre. Unfortunately, it seems someone still likes her (again, answers on a postcard, please) and she’s now landed another gig at GM. Only this time, they’ve let her loose on the golden goose (hey, see what I d….never mind). Read More >

Former Ford exec Ann Doyle sure seems to think so, penning an op-ed in the Detroit Free Press titled Another female auto executive bites the dust. Her thesis?

It took General Motors executive Susan Docherty 24 years of blistering hard work to build an impressive career in one of the toughest leadership laboratories for women: the global auto industry. It took GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre only six months to nearly destroy it.

Given how closely GM has embraced identity politics when it suits its purposes, Doyle’s suggestion is kind of a big deal. But is there anything to it?

Read More >

Advertising Age reports that GM’s surprise landing of former Hyundai and Nissan marketing boss Joel Ewanick nearly didn’t happen. In fact it didn’t happen once. GM offered Ewanick the top marketing job over two months ago according to AA, but he turned down that offer due to concerns about the position’s autonomy from GM’s entrenched “old guard” bureaucracy. As AA’s insider source puts it:

He didn’t want to have to go through a half-dozen people to get something done. He wanted to be able to get on the phone and call one person and say “Can I do this, yes or no?” and get a quick answer.

Apparently it took GM several months before coming back to Ewanick, who is considered a “rock star” of automotive marketing, with an offer that included freedom from its notoriously oppressive bureaucracy.

Read More >

Is good old machismo dying in Brazil? On the eve of Women’s International Day (May 8), women are now held responsible for buying up to 40 percent of brand new cars in Brazil, and are said to influence over 80 percent of purchases. According to well-known Brazilian news site Globo, those are the numbers. But what motivates a woman to buy a car in Brazil? Read More >

Bob Lutz may have left GM, but TTAC’s not through with the man of Maximum just yet. One quote in particular, from an “exit interview” with gm-volt.com, exemplifies the kind of candor that seems likely to disappear from GM along with Lutz. Possibly for good reasons. Well, good PR reasons, anyway. After all, with Lutz unable to deny that GM will lose money and/or battle sticker shock with its forthcoming Volt EREV, he’s the kind of guy who will tell the unspeakable truth instead of playing coy like a good PR man. To wit:

How do we get the cost down without in any way diminishing the value of the car in the eyes of the customer? By just doing some more elegant engineering than we did the first time around where we inadvertently did some belt and suspenders stuff because we wanted to move fast. Now as we look back at the car we say ‘gee I wish we’d done his different,’ …’ gee I wish we’d done that different’ because this is a very expensive solution and we could have done that for a lot less money.

That faint sound you just heard was Ed Whitacre expelling fillet of rattlesnake out his nose after reading that little nugget. Meanwhile, you’ve heard it from the horse’s mouth: the Mk.1 Volt will be expensive, unprofitable, and unpolished. Or, to use a PR term, “belt and suspenders.”

Read More >

Ousted GM marketing boss Susan Docherty came into her own at GM as General Manager of the HUMMER brand. How well did her stewardship of that brand work out? We’ll let this picture do its thousand-words thing on that question [HT: AsianMartin’s Twitter feed, via SpeedSportLife].

Since GM Chairman/CEO Ed Whitacre began firing holdover executives, starting with former CEO Fritz Henderson, TTAC has argued that VP for Marketing Susan Docherty is a prime example of a GM lifer who “owes her career to GM’s timid and inept culture.” Having already lost the Sales VP position to GM’s rising star Mark Reuss, “leaving Docherty time to focus on the marketing side and polish up her resumé,” we figured she was on her way out. And sure enough, several embarrassments later, the announcement came today. What we didn’t expect: that former Hyundai “Marketer of the year” Joel Ewanick would replace her.

Read More >

Within the Renault-Nissan alliance, Carlos Ghosn must have felt like he was the king. He and Louis Schweitzer were the architects of the fourth largest car making entity in the world. Then the Board of Directors chopped his legs out by vetoing his deal with Roger Penske to supply Saturn with Renault cars and, suddenly, Carlos Ghosn had a very sharp lesson. In the Renault-Nissan alliance, no-one is too big to fail. So when it came to his re-election as CEO, no-one thought it was a cut and dried affair. Well, on Thursday the 29/04/2010, Mr Ghosn received his second term at Renault. And he set out some targets to show the BoD he means business.

Reuters reports that over his next 4 year term, Ghosn envisions the following: Read More >

[Editor’s Note: The following farewell message from GM Vice Chairman “Maximum” Bob Lutz was published today at GM’s Fastlane blog. In honor of Lutz’s larger-than life presence on the American auto scene, we are republishing his official goodbye in its entirety. Thanks for the memories, Bob!]

As I mark my last day at General Motors today, I want to say a special thank you and farewell to the loyal readers of FastLane.  This blog would not have been the success it has become without you, and I’m sure you’ll continue to read the many interesting posts about GM and its vehicles that will follow on these virtual pages.

Read More >

Dr. Z. is glad that yesterday’s annual stockholders meeting in Berlin is behind him. To fend of criticism, Zetsche had to set ambitious goals: Daimler’s sales will grow twice as fast as the industry average. Good luck with that. Read More >

GM’s newest board member, UCLA Psychology faculty member Cynthia Telles, and her husband, former California Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, addressing the 2000 Democratic convention. Telles has served on the boards of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (where she served with GM Chairman/CEO Ed Whitacre), as well as several banks. She has no Auto Industry experience, but at least she knows Ed Whitacre and has strong ties to the Democratic party. Or, as Ed Whitacre puts it in GM’s official release:

The addition of Dr. Telles to GM’s board of directors ensures that the company will continue to benefit from a diversity of perspectives and experience in our mission to provide consumers with the world’s best vehicles

NHTSA’s head of Defect Investigation will step down, according to the Wall Street Journal [sub]. Kathleen DeMeter has been with NHTSA for 30 years and spent 15 years in her current position. According to DOT officials, DeMeter “delayed her retirement in order to assist the agency during the recent Toyota recall crisis,” but at 60 years of age, it’s just as likely that she is NHTSA’s first casualty of the Toyota investigation fallout. After all, the Secretary doesn’t like having to explain to congress why his investigators only have two electrical engineers. An interim head of Defect Investigation will be named, while NHTSA searches for a permanent replacement… who wants to bet it’s going to be an engineer?

With about $34.4b in debt and a selling rate that’s being propped up by incentives and fleet sales, Ford ain’t out of the woods yet by a long shot. But compared to the ongoing debacles in the RenCen and Auburn Hills, things are looking downright sunny under the sign of the Blue Oval. Most of the credit for that tends to go to CEO Alan Mulally, who left Boeing to assume control at Ford in 2006. There are people who want him gone. Read More >