GM to Boost Design, Engineering Capacity in Asia

CEO Dan Akerson tells Automotive News that General Motors Co. expects to develop 100 additional vehicles for markets outside North America by 2016.

Many of those models, Akerson says, will be designed and engineered at GM's Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center in Shanghai. The company said previously it plans undisclosed increases in staffing and investment in PATAC, which it operates as a 50:50 joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.

The tech center has been expanded over the past eight years with a 1,730-acre proving ground, new labs, a wind tunnel and more personnel.

Last autumn GM said PATAC was helping it and SAIC develop electric vehicle platforms for global markets. The center also is working with the two companies to launch a new family of 1.0- to 1.5-liter three- and four-cylinder gasoline engines that will go into production in about 2015.

Earlier this month GM's Holden unit in Australia agreed to a long-term partnership with PATAC to contribute design and engineering support for the Chinese facility. GM said Holden's technical center in Melbourne would lead development of at least two new vehicles for China.