Oracle of Delphi

Actually retired to lock in my pension before the suspected sale of Opel to Magna, as I was an Opel employee then. I came back when Carl-Peter went rouge when GM decided to keep Opel, but came back as a member of General Motors International Operations (GMIO) in 2009.

Not end up at BMW, but chose to go to BMW, but only after I lost my faith in GM with the closing of Pontiac and suspected closure of Holden. For me to lose faith in GM, says volumes. I will never drive a Buick, it has old man stigma about it and always will, no matter how many decontented Opels GM throws at Buick. We all know what brand should have died in North America, and that brand was Buick, not Pontiac ...

Waffle me? You must be joking ... BMW has courted me for a while at least since this time last year, however the straw that broke the camel's back for me was when I heard Mike Devereux (Holden's Chairman and Managing Director) give a speech that made me think that GM wanted to close Holden. When I asked an acquaintance on the 39th floor at GM's corporate headquarters about my suspicions of the posibility of Holden closing, he got very defensive and would not answer my questions. Up until that time I thought we were pretty tight, but apparently not. That one moment changed my whole perspective on GM and my future there. So now I work for BMW's Forschung und Innovation Zentrum (FIZ). Which means Research and Innovation. Think GM's Tech Center ... I help bring BMW's latest technology to assembly plants so they can install that technology in our customer's vehicles. I think I've said enough for now, at least on what I do ...

Zeta is dead in the future. No new Zeta cars are coming. Dead Dead Dead Deader and Dead. Get over it, cry a little and move on. Alpha is able to be scaled up above the current sigma chassis. Omega is being built to run the next size up. Zeta is DEAD. Opel is where development for well over 50% of GM's lineup originates. Just because the Opel BRAND is losing money doesn't mean that Opel isn't an important link in the GM chain. I'm not advocating closing EITHER. I just think all of this ire directed at Opel is FOOLISH AND SHORT SIGHTED FOOT STOMPING by people mad they might not get their way. Finally, someone who understands what PCS said all those years ago ... I'm sure that old GME employee is smiling wherever he is now ...

I do most of my communicating via Twitter, so if you are there give me a follow ... I don't bite, really ... https://twitter.com/#!/bmwborger

Link: http://theborgerspeaks.blogspot.com/

This should help explain - http://goo.gl/tQLJm If it closes it will be in 2016 and it will be everything in Oz being shut down ... Remember they only have one assembly plant, everything else sold there is either GMDAT or Opel rebadged, even the Cruze is really Korean but built in Oz.

We can confirm that GM and BMW are in talks to explore the possibility of a cooperation on Technologies, such as fuel cells. (Short and sweet, I like that, but key in on the word "Technologies", so it's not just fuel cells) ... Link: http://goo.gl/UCMFP

The advanced fuel cell could eliminate range anxiety and make electric cars more practical, while keeping carbon-dioxide emissions low. If you want to take an electric car on a long drive, you need a gas-powered generator, like the one in the Chevrolet Volt, to extend its range. The problem is that when it's running on the generator, it's no more efficient than a conventional car. In fact, it's even less efficient, because it has a heavy battery pack to lug around. Now researchers at the University of Maryland have made a fuel cell that could provide a far more efficient alternative to a gasoline generator. Like all fuel cells, it generates electricity through a chemical reaction, rather than by burning fuel, and can be twice as efficient at generating electricity as a generator that uses combustion. The researchers' fuel cell is a greatly improved version of a type that has a solid ceramic electrolyte, and is known as a solid-oxide fuel cell. Unlike the hydrogen fuel cells typically used in cars, solid-oxide fuel cells can run on a variety of readily available fuels, including diesel, gasoline, and natural gas. They've been used for generating power for buildings, but they've been considered impractical for use in cars because they're far too big and because they operate at very high temperatures—typically at about 900 ⁰C. By developing new electrolyte materials and changing the cell's design, the researchers made a fuel cell that is much more compact. It can produce 10 times as much power, for its size, as a conventional one, and could be smaller than a gasoline engine while producing as much power. The researchers have also lowered the temperature at which the fuel cell operates by hundreds of degrees, which will allow them to use cheaper materials. "It's a huge difference in cost," says Eric Wachsman, director of the University of Maryland Energy Research Center, who led the research. He says the researchers have identified simple ways to improve the power output and reduce the temperature further still, using methods that are already showing promising results it the lab. These advances could bring costs to a point that they are competitive with gasoline engines. Wachsman says he's in the early stages of starting a company to commercialize the technology. Wachsman's fuel cells currently operate at 650 ⁰C, and his goal is to bring that down to 350 ⁰C for use in cars. Insulating the fuel cells isn't difficult since they're small—a fuel cell stack big enough to power a car would only need to be 10 centimeters on a side. High temperatures are a bigger problem because they make it necessary to use expensive, heat-resistant materials within the device, and because heating the cell to operating temperatures takes a long time. By bringing the temperatures down, Wachsman can use cheaper materials and decrease the amount of time it takes the cell to start. Even with these advances, the fuel cell wouldn't come on instantly, and turning it on and off with every short trip in the car would cause a lot of wear and tear, reducing its lifetime. Instead, it would be paired with a battery pack, as a combustion engine is in the Volt, Wachsman says. The fuel cell could then run more steadily, serving to keep the battery topped without providing bursts of acceleration. The researchers achieved their result largely by modifying the solid electrolyte material at the core of a solid-oxide fuel cell. In fuel cells on the market, such as one made by Bloom Energy, the electrolyte has to be made thick enough to provide structural support. But the thickness of the electrolyte limits power generation. Over the last several years, researchers have been developing designs that don't require the electrolyte to support the cell so they can make the electrolyte thinner and achieve high power output at lower temperatures. The University of Maryland researchers took this a step further by developing new multilayered electrolytes that increase the power output still more. The work is part of a larger U.S. Department of Energy effort, over the past decade, to make solid-oxide fuel cells practical. The first fruits of that effort likely won't be fuel cells in cars—so far, Wachsman has only made relatively small fuel cells, and significant engineering work remains to be done. The first applications of solid oxide fuels in vehicles may be on long-haul trucks with sleeper cabs. Equipment suppliers such as Delphi and Cummins are developing fuel cells that can power the air conditioners, TVs, and microwaves inside the cabs, potentially cutting fuel consumption by 85 percent compared to idling the truck's engine. The Delphi system also uses a design that allows for a thinner electrolyte, but it operates at higher temperatures than Wachsman's fuel cell. The fuel cell could be turned on Monday, and left to run at low rates all week and still get the 85 percent reduction. Delphi has built a prototype and plans to demonstrate its system on a truck next year. Link: http://goo.gl/MbSS8

You think so?

BTW, I'm currently in Brazil, BMW is looking to set up an assembly plant here ...

Link:

Looks like a photoshopped Holden Coupe 60... It's a BMW design study ... With a hint of Oz DNA thrown in for good measure, not sure how that DNA got to Munich though ... I missed you too ...

Ja, Mein Herr

I'm kinda new, and kinda old. I use to work for GM but went to work for BMW. I left GM this past summer, but because of my non-compete clause, I did not officially start with BMW until October 1, 2011. Did you notice that soon after I got to BMW, how GM and BMW started making goo goo eyes at each other? Coincidence, I think not, it's all part of my charm ... I hope you didn't miss me too much ...

Link: http://goo.gl/tBols

I don't think I ever heard of a Pontiac, are they still around?

Enjoy it ... http://yfrog.com/h74uduqj

Let me add some food for thought - http://bit.ly/t8U5LJ ...

Thanx Guys, 52 my ass ...

Now you know I don't kiss and tell anymore, last time I did that here about Pontiac dying 3 years before it happened, the angry villagers stormed the castle and wanted to burn and pitchfork Börgerstein ... You remember Tick-Tock don't you? You know what they say, once bitten, twice shy ... Now, now, Cubical-aka-Moltar, I have nothing left to prove, especially to you. Everything I said comes to pass, Holden GTO pulled, No G8 ST, No G8, Opel won't be sold, we could go on but I digress. Camino, it wasn't a laugh as much as a smirk, seeing all the speculation, I find it amusing to say the least. All I will say on this subject ... Later y'alls ...

I hate to be a Bitch, but this is fun to watch ...

Link - http://bit.ly/iMWKcb

It must be a disease at GM, they always pick the worst possible images. Then we are in agreement, I don't have a dog in this fight anyway. Let the Ute idea die away in North America ... As far as nudging an idea, Joel liked the pic, but then again I don't normally see any ideas coming from NJ at all, and doubt I ever will ...

Joel Ewanick and I tweet (twitter) back and forth to each other, here is what I tweeted him, and here was his latest response to me ... GMEmployee <------- This is me on twitter @JoelEwanick Just in case you want to give product to GMC, a picture is worth a 1000 words ... ;-) http://twitpic.com/4yadxe JoelEwanick @GMEmployee where did u find this pic? Very cool, very unlikely that we would bring El Camino for sure not the GMC version Feel free to go to twitter and look yourselves. On twitter for me you would go to http://www.twitter.com/gmemployee For Joel you would go to http://www.twitter.com/joelewanick