Bay City Powertrain Plant Manager Joe Mazzeo (L) and Flint Powertrain Plant Manager Kathleen Dilworth with 1.4-liter engines their plants are now making at an announcement ceremony in 2010.
You have to feel sorry for GM employees when they undergo meaningless corporate marketing maneuverings. Today after 24 years General Motors renames GM Powertrain to GM Global Propulsion Systems.
So what?
GM’s Global Propulsion Systems is still the same group of more than 8,600 people who design, develop and test all the “propulsion related products and controls” for GM worldwide.
“The new name is another step on our journey to redefine transportation and mobility,” says Mark Reuss, executive vice president, Global Product Development. “Global Propulsion Systems better conveys what we are developing and offering to our customers: an incredibly broad, diverse lineup – ranging from high-tech 3-cylinder gasoline engines to fuel cells, V8 diesel engines to battery electric systems, and 6-, 7-, 8-, 9- and 10-speed to continuously variable transmissions,” Reuss says.
Yawn.
So what if 50% of the Global Propulsion Systems engineering workforce is working on alternative or electrified propulsion systems. That is the price of survival.
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, editor and publisher of AutoInformed, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped during a downshift and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
