Currently, engineering and design are centralized. In fact, not Chevy, GMC, Caddy, nor Buick actually employ anyone.
There are research, engineering and design teams assigned to a project. Usually, the project revolves around a platform or vehicle size. Once the project is complete, some stay on to oversee updates while most get moved to work on another assignment. And the cycle repeats. This is the case with U.S./North American operations.
Then there’s GM Holden and GM Europe, who also contribute and sometimes oversee entire projects. For instance, the Cruze hatch was headed up by Holden. GM China/PATAC is another recent upstart to join the global GM engineering & design ranks.
GM needs to create different engineering and design teams, at the least, for its different brands. At least do what Toyota does with Lexus — whereby Toyota and Lexus co-engineer platforms and powertrains up to a certain point. Once their views begin to diverge, each team takes the current result in house and modifies or develops it further from there. Lexus has its own design house and, recently, engineering team. This is a very cost-effective and efficient solution that allows for the creation of different vehicles while sharing some components and engineering resources.
