Tony Pasawatz, the engineer who oversaw development and production of the Chevy Volt since 2006 and who has been a GM employee for three decades, has left The General. A GM spokesperson has confirmed that Posawatz has retired from the automaker; however, it’s important to note that this doesn’t necessarily mean that he has retired from the industry, as a report from Automotive News states that Posawatz has “decided to take some time to pause and assess the situation and see what opportunities exist” outside GM.
Through June, the Chevy Volt sold 8,817 units, way below the 60,000-unit goal initially set out by GM; since then, the automaker’s CEO Dan Akerson has cut the sales forecast of the vehicle.
The GM Authority Take
The Volt isn’t selling in huge numbers… yet. Heck, which electric vehicle is? Just give it some time (and for gas prices to reach $5 a gallon). But forget all that: this development is a bit troubling to us, as it may point to a weakness within GM in retaining top-level (engineering) talent. Let’s hope no one scoops up Mr. Posawatz and offers him twice the pay to engineer a direct Volt competitor… because that’s the last thing the Volt needs right now.
Comments
Dan asked him to cut the cost from $120K to $40K, Tony said no, and he was fired!
Interesting, thanks for the input!
When you refer to lowering costs, which costs were those?
You folks should dig the dirty out this company, because you can only hear the ballyhooed crap from them, all the way until their lawyer submit the paperwork for chapter 11. They did this in the past and they will do it again!
You folks should not trust anything GM nwould tell you. GM’s team on the chevy Volt has been crushed by the EXTREMELY HIGH expectation and HARSH reality (lose too much money).
More inside info will be given to Mitt Romney!
Ya I no! I saw it on fox where ekectricty costs $28kwh, they also said there is no usch thang as peak oil too!
~
I hope you not labouring under the idea that the Volt was ever suposed to make black ink. Everyone knew of this way back in 2009, even when the concept looked as bad as it did.
That, and the R&D costs to the US taxpayer is nowhere near as high as you think it is.
Hilarious Tony keep the fear alive.
Kind of reminds me of FORD in the 1960’s to Yesterday. Develop world leading technology or a class leading product; get rid of the team resposible so development cannot continue.
Is there any one who understands why this happens?