- Common Motors is bullish about electrical automobiles, spending billions of {dollars} on their improvement.
- Beneath CEO Mary Barra, a crew of engineers and venture leads are making all of it doable.
- These are the 12 individuals driving the EV cost at GM.
After a century devoted to gas-powered automobiles, Common Motors has made it clear it is all in on electrical energy.
GM is dedicating $35 billion to electric and self-driving vehicles via 2025, and says it won’t sell any gas-powered cars, SUVs, or light pickups after 2035. Earlier this month, it set certainly one of its greatest targets but: doubling revenue to $280 billion by the end of the decade, pushed largely by new electrical fashions.
However making good on these guarantees requires that GM go into battle with out the armor on which it is relied for many years: a virtually unmatched depth of information about methods to design, construct, and promote automobiles. That experience will not lower it for the brand new era of autos. Designs have modified. So have supplies, wiring, provide chains, tires. Constructing the EVs of the longer term means fixing new challenges like battery chemistry, infrastructure, and even gross sales.
Actually, CEO Mary Barra and her C-suite are striving to make the transition. However their efforts would matter little in the event that they could not depend on groups of engineers, venture managers, and program leads determining this new type of automobile enterprise at a livid tempo.
Listed here are 12 of the little-seen individuals main the GM’s cost into an electrical future.
GM
Tim Grewe, director, electrification technique
Batteries can be essential to GM’s electrical future, and Tim Grewe oversees battery cell manufacturing and firm technique surrounding the shift away from gas-powered engines. He is been within the position for 2 of the almost 22 years that he is spent on the firm. He was beforehand govt chief engineer and program supervisor main GM electrification technique.
Grewe was the technical lead who created the Ultium Cells three way partnership between GM and South Korean battery producer LG Chem, in keeping with his LinkedIn bio. The $2.3 billion partnership, which incorporates jointly operating a battery factory in Lordstown, Ohio, bolsters the automaker’s battery improvement because it seeks to make good on its aggressive EV guarantees.
“We have to make higher batteries that value so much much less,” Grewe said earlier this month.
Travis Hester, chief EV officer
Travis Hester was named chief EV officer almost one yr in the past. Within the position, he heads the automaker’s EV progress operations, a few of which incorporates charging infrastructure. As with batteries, getting infrastructure proper is important to an automaker’s EV future, as EVs are solely pretty much as good as their charging choices.
“There’s much more to EV adoption than simply shopping for the car and simply having a big related community,” Hester said earlier this year. “Our mission is to assist each single individual recover from no matter nervousness they’ve and assist them into an EV in probably the most handy manner doable.”
Tom Gallagher, plant director, Ultium Cells LLC
Tom Gallagher’s position within the Ultium Cells JV is important in GM’s bid to strengthen its battery improvement.
Gallagher is liable for day-to-day manufacturing operations administration. He spent one yr as plant director in Lordstown; earlier than that, he served in different plant and manufacturing store roles with the automaker, in keeping with his LinkedIn.
GM
Mei Cai, director of battery cell methods analysis, GM R&D
Mei Cai is main GM’s subsequent era battery chemistry efforts. She’s been with the automaker for 21 years, in keeping with her LinkedIn.
GM positioned an emphasis on batteries when it announced earlier this month that it plans to construct a battery cell heart to work on decreasing the price of EV batteries and bolstering car vary. The middle will open in southeast Michigan mid-next yr.
Cai was not too long ago named Technologist of the Yr by Ladies of Colour journal for her position in advancing battery cell manufacturing and contributions to GM’s Ultium battery chemistry.
BrightDrop
Liz Rojewski, director of engineering, BrightDrop
GM launched BrightDrop, its electrical supply and logistics enterprise, at the beginning of this yr with the imaginative and prescient of making use of the automaker’s experience in electrification and fleet administration to environment friendly first-to-last-mile items motion.
As director of engineering for the unit, Liz Rojewski has led the enterprise’s improvement of recent tasks, together with that of the EP1, an electrical pallet that may transfer items over brief distances.
The division has additionally developed an electrical supply van, the BrightDrop EV600, which is powered by GM’s Ultium battery platform. BrightDrop’s first buyer, FedEx, will obtain 500.
Rojewski was beforehand program engineering supervisor for autonomous engineering for the Cruise Origin, the driverless shuttle developed by GM’s electrical, self-driving know-how startup.
Alex Keros, director, charging infrastructure improvement
Alex Keros is liable for executing GM’s method to electrical car charging.
Along with growing EVs, the automaker has been working to ramp up its position in charging them. GM introduced Ultium Charge 360 in April, a “holistic charging method” that integrates charging networks, GM cellular apps, and different providers associated to juicing up house owners of GM electrical autos. The corporate has a partnership with charging network provider EVgo to put in greater than 2,700 quick chargers throughout the nation via 2025, amongst different main performs within the charging house.
Previous to this position, Keros served as sensible cities chief of Maven, GM’s urban mobility brand and automobile sharing service, which shut down final yr. Keros joined GM in 2007.
Mike Lelli, senior supervisor, battery cell superior know-how group
A veteran of Common Motors for 36 years, Mike Lelli is at the moment the senior supervisor of the automaker’s battery cell superior know-how group.
“My group is liable for the know-how roadmap relative to all these totally different areas throughout the cell,” Lelli informed TechCrunch earlier this yr. “We work in all of those areas concurrently to scale back prices.”
For instance, the automaker announced a partnership with SES (previously SolidEnergy Programs) in March in an effort to enhance the vitality density of lithium-ion batteries.
Lelli has been a key member of the automaker’s shift towards electrification lately. Previous to his present position, he served as chief enterprise and technique architect engaged on bettering the battery value construction for EVs, in keeping with his LinkedIn. He was additionally car chief engineer of the electrical Chevrolet Bolt.
Gerard Connell, director, EV retail technique
Gerard Connell is overseeing the automaker’s EV retail technique.
As GM seeks to sell 30 new all-electric models globally by 2025, its method to retailing can be key. At present, solely about 2 p.c of recent car gross sales within the US are electrical, however automakers and startup producers alike are racing to seek out methods to persuade customers to ditch the pump for the plug.
With some nascent gamers going direct to customers as an alternative of utilizing the normal seller mannequin, and others contemplating subscription fashions, the way in which automobiles are bought is altering. It’s going to require legacy firms to evaluate how their play within the panorama adjustments as nicely.
Connell was beforehand director of gross sales and advertising for OnStar and related providers.
GM
Jamie Brewer, govt chief engineer, battery electrical autos
Jamie Brewer leads the crew that develops and manages the automaker’s EV tasks.
Most notably, Brewer helped lead engineering of the Cadillac Lyriq, the model’s first all-electric car. Cadillac plans to have an all-electric lineup by 2030.
The $59,995 Lyriq SUV bought out in minutes final month. It’s going to ship greater than 300 miles of vary.
Brewer has held a lot of different roles at GM, together with chief engineer of launch car remediation, and director and world invoice of supplies chief, in keeping with her LinkedIn.
“Historical past will look again at this time limit and say this was a significant inflection level for the automotive trade, and I feel that Common Motors is on the forefront of it,” Brewer told CBS Local earlier this year.
Kelly Helfrich, EV grid integration and technique supervisor
Kelly Helfrich oversees EV grid integration and technique at GM.
“The instruments are there, the vary is there and the charging charges are there to make individuals extra comfy, and it is solely going to get higher from right here,” Helfrich stated earlier this year, when she was supervisor of electrical car charging and infrastructure.
In that position, she led technique improvement and execution of auto grid integration initiatives. She’s additionally been supervisor of electrical autos at Maven, in keeping with her LinkedIn.
Jeff Morrison, govt director, world electrification and battery methods engineering
A veteran of GM for 15 years, Jeff Morrison now oversees battery methods engineering and world electrification. He’s liable for the automaker’s EV {hardware} improvement, which incorporates electrical motors, chargers, and battery cells, modules, and packs. Morrison additionally leads car electrical elements and methods engineering, and general EV driving efficiency, in keeping with a SAE bio.
Morrison was beforehand govt director of a lot of areas, together with world buying and provide chain, program administration; electrical methods and superior product buying; and world buying, strategic planning and improvement, in keeping with his LinkedIn. He is additionally been a director of areas corresponding to logistics, powertrain buying, and world chassis buying.
GM
Fiona Meyer-Teruel, system lead, battery system electronics
At GM since 2016, Fiona Meyer-Teruel joined its crew targeted on electrification in 2018.
“I actually like the place electrification goes proper now,” Meyer-Teruel informed Automotive News last year. “GM’s imaginative and prescient of zero crashes, zero emission and nil congestion — I actually like that emission half as a result of I feel there’s a lot we are able to do there.”
She has had a hand in GM’s wi-fi battery administration system, which may monitor the well being and temperature of particular person battery cells wirelessly, thus decreasing car weight, rising car vary, and making software program updates simpler.
Meyer-Teruel is a graduate of Stanford College.
