GM to reduce the number of platforms it develops, keep them in production longer

Automotive platforms can costs of hundreds of millions of dollars to develop so General Motors is aiming to reduce the number of architectures its uses and nearly double the amount of time they remain in production.

Speaking with Reuters, GM President Dan Ammann said new vehicle platforms could remain in production for a dozen years or more. The new budget saving philosophy will start when the company launches the redesigned Chevrolet Cruze and carry forward to nearly all future vehicles.

The move is part of a larger plan to overhaul the vehicle development process and create a "global fleet of vehicles with just a few basic building blocks." This modular approach could bring huge saving as development costs will be spread over millions of different vehicles.

Despite increasing the amount of time that platforms remain in production, GM will try to keep models fresh by facelifted variants more often. The company also intends to distribute new infotainment and electronic features over the internet so its models are always up to date.

The move to reduce the number of platforms that the company develops is understandable as a number of different automakers are also taking the same approach. However, the decision to keep them in production for over a decade has drawn detractors as some investors and analysts have expressed concern models based on aging platforms could become uncompetitive.

Source: Reuters

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