Archive for the ‘research and development’ Category

Last week, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne unveiled the company's five-year recovery plan. This week, we've received details about Chrysler's electric vehicle program, which has been given a fairly extreme makeover and a new direction.

Most notably, Chrysler's EV development initiative -- known as ENVI -- has been "absorbed into the normal vehicle development program", according to a Chrysler spokesperson. That doesn't mean that electric vehicles are off the proverbial table, however; as many or slightly more workers will be dedicated to EV programs, but in organizational terms, the ENVI team has been split and rolled into Chrysler's...

Yesterday, President Obama announced $2.4 billion in technology grants to car companies, battery makers, universities, and research facilities across the U.S. During his speech in Elkhart, Indiana, the president stressed the importance of battery development as a way of reviving America's manufacturing sector and reducing the country's dependence on foreign oil. Vice President Joe Biden and several members of the president's cabinet also unveiled grant awards at various sites around the country.

These announcements have been some time in coming. The grant funds were included in the $787 billion stimulus package created by the federal...

On October 1, Alan Taub will become VP of Research and Development at General Motors.

It's a big job, not to mention that the company's historically independent R+D group was just made part of the Product Development group as GM starts to emerge from its recent bankruptcy with the aid of low-interest government loans.

Our sister site GreenCarReports.com interviewed Taub at length. We thought we'd simply share our five favorite excerpts:

- We don't do any research just for its own sake. We have to go in with some application to a vehicle in mind.

- In our labs, we have car interiors where the seating is much more like business class on an...