"In sourcing" - GM to build new plant for electric cars in Maryland!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Good news!

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-gm-plant-visit-20120215,0,7402134.story

Workers peered through safety goggles as they fitted together parts of the electric motors they were building on a General Motors assembly line in White Marsh, MD.

For now, the parts are made in a factory in Mexico and then shipped to Baltimore County, MD for assembly. But not for long.

By the end of the year, motors for cutting-edge electric vehicles will be built from scratch in a sprawling $244 million plant under construction next to GM's factory, now called General Motors Baltimore Operations.

About 189 workers will be hired to build the motors for a new generation of plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles, joining the 220 employees at the existing plant. The new plant's first order of business will be building motors for the Chevrolet Spark, a five-door mini-car with a hatch that GM plans to roll out in 2013, according to a company spokeswoman.

[Motown_Johnny]

1. It looks like the race is finally on

Ford is starting to get into the electric car business and now GM seems to be expanding beyond The Volt.

We are about 30 years late but I suppose that even in this case "better late than never" still applies.

[Zalatix]

2. 189 jobs, 5 million left to go!

They say that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. Yes, it's a start

[Motown_Johnny]

24. This is more about electric vehicles for me

I know it is not many jobs and even if this does take off it will just reduce the sale of internal combustion driven vehicles.

I am just happy to see that EVs are finally starting to move out of the novelty niche and into the mainstream.

[dixiegrrrrl]

27. Now if we can only create car tires that don't need 7 barrels of oil to make.

[Motown_Johnny]

30. 7 gallons, not 7 (42 gallon) barrels

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/alternative-fuel/news/bioengineers-turn-trees-into-tires

^snip^

Making Rubber from Plants

About 250 million tires are sold yearly in the United States. Each one is roughly one-fourth synthetic rubber (the rest consists of natural rubber, steel, nylon, polyester, assorted reinforcing chemicals, waxes, pigments and oils). Synthetic rubber production dates back to the early 1900s and mushroomed into an industry during World War II. Today it takes about seven gallons of oil to make a standard tire—five gallons as feedstock for chemicals that make up synthetic rubber, plus two for the energy required to power the manufacturing process.




But recycling the old tires into new ones would be a good thing if a viable process were developed.

[nolabels]

40. They already have recycle used tires, they are called recaps

On cars not too many people want or use them (and never put them on the front axle if you have them). On trucks or other larger vehicles the tire casing might get recapped two or three times before it gets scraped.

[Motown_Johnny]

42. that is kinda like putting new soles on a pair of shoes

not really recycling.

I don't know anyone who has ever used them on a car. The recap can separate from the tire if it gets to hot. Not the safest thing in the world.

[nolabels]

46. Subjective argument maybe

I have been a truck mechanic for 34 years and on the whole i can say recaps have became well worth the money over the years. They are just not stylish for ones car. The company i work for uses them on smaller local delivery vans and gets good use out of them. The problem of being for recycling them is extracting the cord from the rubber

Try this
Recycling And Disposal of Scrap Tires
http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?A=2714&Q=324902

Tire Shredders
http://www.americanrecycler.com/june2003/spotlight.html

or for fun
"Automobile new and retread tires were carefully controlled and strictly rationed."
World War II Deprivations in the United States
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~grannyapple/INFORMATION/World%20War%20II%20Deprivations.html

[appleannie1]

3. And to think. Two years ago they were going belly up.

[elleng]

4. GREAT NEWS!

[jwleute]

6. GM and Romney

Wasn't it Romney who didn't want to bail out the car companies?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. Yes, he's an enemy of the workers

[Cali_Democrat]

8. Yes....he wrote an op-ed titled: "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt"

[Old and In the Way]

10. Bummer for all Republicans.

(1) Creates new US jobs + jobs feeding these plants.
(2) Electric energy - doesn't help their Big Oil buddies and creates a cleaner environment.
(3) It's not in one of their Right-to-Work States - guess an educated union labor force still has value to GM.

[NBachers]

9. Chevy Spark

http://www.chevrolet.com/spark-mini-car/#main_LB0

[Auggie]

11. Great little car for export too

Thanks for the link

[Rosa Luxemburg]

20. Thanks, I was trying to find the cost of it?

[madrchsod]

12. why would any company invest 100`s of millions in war torn mexico?

gm and china are at war over chinese companies ripping off gm`s technology.

usa is still the most stable country in the world with the best workers in the world.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. K&R

And some of the parts suppliers need to start re-opening their facilities in Ohio so they can give credit where credit is due - and boot the head Cheeto the hell out of office.

[IDemo]

17. True, sparks are generally not desirable in electric motors or controllers

Last edited Mon Feb 20, 2012, 02:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Or in petroleum powered vehicles. <- edit - except where needed, of course!

"Joule" would be a good name for an electric car - it's a unit of energy and sounds like "jewell".

[Rosa Luxemburg]

22. Joule is a good name

[Johnny Noshoes]

25. From an advertising point

Joule would be a great name to build an ad campaign for the car.

[IDemo]

26. Taken already, I see

and not a bad looking car...

[Motown_Johnny]

38. There were no "Exploding Volts" that is just more RW bullshit

Please look into these things before posting


http://www.driveforinnovation.com/the-volt-and-the-battery-fires-furor


^snip^

To recap, we know of three fires in which Chevy Volts were involved or nearby:

1. A fire destroyed a garage in northwestern Connecticut. The owner–a volunteer firefighter named Storm–had a Volt and a home-converted Suzuku Samurai EV (pictured, right); here's his blog on the fire, where he writes "definitely not the Volt." (Here's local TV coverage.) No cause has been determined.

2. In Mooresville, N.C., a fire in a three-car garage that housed a Volt spread to and destroyed a luxury home. Initial suggestions identified the 240V charging station as the possible cause. That's been rejected since then, as fire officials have said the fire started away from the vehicles and charging station. But no cause has been determined.

3. The National Highway Transportation Safety Board crash-tested a Volt, pushing it into a pole at 20 miles an hour. The car performed well and was stored outside in the cold. Weeks later, the car caught fire. The fire apparently was caused by a short when the punctured coolant system leaked into the LiOn cells.


There was only one fire and that was caused by a vehicle that was crashed and then just left to sit for weeks. Any privately owned vehicle would not have been neglected the way this one was.

[demosincebirth]

15. Best part is that they are good union jobs

[Rosa Luxemburg]

21. Yes!

[lunatica]

16. Smart fucking move

At least some of them have seen the writing on the wall. They've figured out how to go green and create jobs and fulfill a real demand. May others follow post haste. We have some serious changes to make.

[jwirr]

19. Great on two levels. American made and electric.

[Uncle Joe]

23. That is good news for GM, Maryland, the U.S. and the world at large.

Thanks for the thread, Rosa Luxemburg.

[ffr]

28. Awesome!

It only took a near on global depression and government take-over for them to start building cars people actually want. I may soon be one of them.

[FarCenter]

29. What are the advantages of this versus buying motors from an electric motor manufacturer?

Does GM build all the other motors that go into their cars?

Electric cooling fan? Electric steering? Power windows? Ventilation fans?

[madrchsod]

33. they can control the production/cost and technology of these motors

building them in china is no longer a wise thing to do for companies that want to protect their technology.

[FarCenter]

37. There are a number of companies in the US that make electric motors

Everything from motors for appliances up to rolling mills. General Electric, A O Smith, Baldor, Emerson Electric, etc.

I would think that they have more production experience, lower costs, and better electric motor technology than GM?

[gkhouston]

31. Has someone finally figured out that stuff built out of the country by people working long hours

in lousy conditions for crap pay doesn't lend itself to a quality product? No one could have expected that.

[valerief]

32. Great. I wonder if they'll be sold in the U.S. nt

[Stop n think]

34. DONNY DOWNER

Glad they're makin it here and it's a step in the right direction BUT what the hells gonna happen when there's thousand's on the road and the electric grid is maxed out not to mention the fuel that creates the electricity. More nuclear waste, more fracking to get the gas for power plants, maybe more oil to run some of these power plants, did you know there's power plants that use rubber tires to supplement their fuel? .. Can you say back lash? This is a step we need to skip but we wont because there the potential for large sums of profit to be made. The electricity needs to come from somewhere else.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

36. Republicans are spreading myths about the grid

http://mediamatters.org/research/201202080012

[UCmeNdc]

45. Solar Energy

[Bonobo]

35. Wonderful what can happen when you turn your currency into kleenex! nt!

[ProSense]

41. Great news. n/t

[iandhr]

43. "Bin Laden is dead GM is alive" Joe Biden

Great news.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

44. LOL!