General Motors: Back from the Dead | Electric Destiny | 4
Business Movers
Wondery
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 22 July 2021
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As Mary Barra races toward an electric future against the likes of Tesla, she will have to reckon with tough decisions involving GM’s workforce.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to business movers, add free on Amazon Music, download the app today. |
| 0:22.0 | It's Spring, 2013, at a design studio in GM's Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. |
| 0:27.0 | About a year before Mary Barra was named CEO. |
| 0:30.0 | Mary, as the head of global product development, is on a mission to make a car unlike any other on the market, |
| 0:36.0 | an affordable, long-range electric vehicle or EV. |
| 0:40.0 | But today, Mary and her team have a problem. |
| 0:42.0 | They're trying to figure out how to make the technology work while still keeping the costs low for the consumer. |
| 0:47.0 | Every automaker in the world has faced this dilemma and failed. |
| 0:51.0 | But Mary is confident she and her team can crack the code. |
| 0:55.0 | Okay, and what's the price of the current design? |
| 0:57.0 | 52,000. |
| 0:59.0 | It's still too high. |
| 1:01.0 | I know Ms. Barra, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than a Tesla. |
| 1:04.0 | That's nothing to be proud of. |
| 1:06.0 | The average Tesla costs over $80,000. |
| 1:08.0 | We're not making this car for rich people in Silicon Valley. |
| 1:11.0 | We're making it for the average American. |
| 1:13.0 | Now, what can we do to get the costs down? |
| 1:15.0 | Well, we can cut the carbon fiber. |
| 1:18.0 | Other aerodynamic features, that'll help. |
| 1:21.0 | Okay, but what does that do practically? |
| 1:23.0 | What's the battery range? |
... |
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