In its push to launch 30 new electric vehicles by 2025 and hit zero tailpipe emissions by 2035, General Motors is undertaking a major transition. Making that transition a reality will be GM’s employees, many of whom will receive electric vehicle training through the GM Automotive Manufacturing Electric College (AMEC).
According to a recent report from Detroit Free Press, AMEC was born from a need to improve General Motors employee training with specialization and new skills. The students are all full-time General Motors employees, including both new hires and veteran workers, who attend classes as their primary “job” with the intention of graduating at the end of the year with the technical skills needed for building the latest and greatest GM vehicles.
AMEC was originally set to launch last year, but the launch was delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the first classes instead starting this past January.
One of the main drivers behind the creation of AMEC is Jason Garrison. Garrison was a GM global technical integration engineer back in 2019, responsible for setting GM’s electrical manufacturing standards. However, when electrical issues on the GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado pickups resulted in a recall of some 350,000 pickups, Garrison approached higher-ups with an idea to improve GM employee training.
“It’s a significant cost to pay to staff it, hire people and pay them their full salary for a year without getting any production out of them,” Garrison told Detroit Free Press. “But we feel if we train people, then in the long haul they will stay with GM and our warranty costs on electrical repairs will go down.”
The precise budget allocated for AMEC was not disclosed, but according to Garrison, it’s millions of dollars.
In addition to providing the skills needed to produce and design electric vehicles, AMEC will also provide workers with the skills needed to work on complex electrical systems for internal combustion engines.
New students are expected to join the classes in the next few months, with graduates set to work in manufacturing facilities like Spring Hill Assembly in Tennessee, which will build the new Cadillac Lyriq, as well as Factory ZERO (previously known as Detroit-Hamtramck), set to build the GMC Hummer EV.
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Comments
Underground Resistance sabotaged Hitler’s factories, maybe they can do the same to Miss Antoinette’s.
IMHO all the manufacturers are jumping the gun on EVs. Elon Musk has all ready said our electrical grids won’t support massive EV penetration. I don’t see or hear electric companies scrambling to upgrade the grid. That will take years and billions of dollars to accomplish. Californians are all ready having second thoughts about their EVs and recharging problems, CA green energy and rolling blackouts are creating havoc with EVs. With the current administration following CA on their green energy the entire country will be like CA soon, but that’s what the majority of voters wanted.
Bob They will feel it in the numbers. The shareholders will be pissed off. I would never buy stock in GM. For years they have had some of the biggest idiot CEO’s.
GM doesn’t give a sh-t about the environment. This is to reduce jobs. Period. Maybe they should be teaching employees how to find a new job?
People don’t want electric vehicles.
The grid won’t support it. Just ask Texas.
GM is already pushing politicians to get taxpayers to pay for the infrastructure.
What do you do with all the old batteries from these vehicles. Maybe we can dump them in Mary Barry’s front yard.
EV push? LOL Does GM actually think that all of a sudden in a nano second that the world has had an epiphany and are now just like that slobbering all over themselves and all goose bumpy dying to buy an EV? Especially from GM? IT IS NOTE THERE! What a joke the CEO Bara globalist has made you.
Dealers are going to have to do a lot of training for mechanics to get up to speed on EVs. Dealer I worked at couple years ago had 1 trained and he was retirement age. This will change while pay scale of EVa become popular faster than able mechanic. Or should I say technician?
so basically all of you are saying the japanese approach to ev’s is right.
steve Japanese car companies have been outsmarting American car companies for years. Same thing. Especially GM. They have been run by idiots for years.