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Meet Alex Archer, the engineer behind GM's power-sliding center console

In 2009, a GM manager complained to a 59-year-old GM technician about the hassle of retrieving items from a pickup truck bed after driving shifted the cargo. In two days, the tech had come up with the ideas that, ten years later, would debut as the MultiPro tailgate. The engineering teams kept the tailgate secret in part by hiding mock-ups in a locked storage closet in GM's Vehicle Engineering Center in Warren Michigan for two years. A piece in the Detroit Free Press reveals that another storage closet in Warren would play the same role in a different cloak-and-dagger operation, this time for the power-sliding center console in GM's new full-sized SUVs. During a meeting in early 2017, bosses gave the job of the console's creation to 24-year-old design release engineer Alex Archer, just two years out of Stanford University with a degree in engineering and product design.  This time, the catalyst for the feature was an internal GM think tank called co:lab, where employees suggest ideas. Execs gave Archer the task because "They needed someone willing to ask a lot of questions," her 36-month mandate to produce a six-way console that could be a standard cubby or a gaping maw able to swallow four gallon jugs or hide a secret compartment. Clearly, she succeeded. It took Archer and the team nine months to devise a prototype, another six months to get the green light for production. As with the tailgate, the team working on the console grew to include designers, production engineers, and suppliers. Archer, now 26, shepherded the process, and her name is on the patent. "It took a ton of people, I'm just somebody who stuck with it the whole time," she said. GM like her work well enough to produce the "Day in the Life" segment above, five months before the world would hear about the console. Archer's path to engineering was as unlikely as getting the job for the console. She had entered Stanford with plans to be a doctor. But an innovation class during her freshman year, and a sophomore summer spent helping her grandfather rebuild a 1937 MG engine recharted her course. Her grandfather told her, "You know, you could be an engineer for a car company." Consumer reaction to Archer's work won't be far off, the SUVs slated to hit dealerships soon. Meanwhile, she's busy on something that could be just as intense as the console: Restoring a 1955 Packard Clipper in her garage. Head to Freep to check out the story of Archer and the console. Related Video:

GM dealers unhappy about pickup prices

The backlash is beginning. Following General Motors' price hike of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra last week, dealers across the country are expressing their ire over increasing prices in the face of rebates and discounts on trucks from Ford and Ram.
Speaking to Automotive News, Sam Pilato, the general manager at Dimmitt Chevrolet in Clearwater, FL, Silverados are "selling very poorly." W. Carrol Smith, the president of Monument Chevrolet in the heart of truck country, Texas, said, "[GM's] position is that the vehicle stands on its own and it doesn't need a bigger rebate. That's not what the market is telling us."
According to AN, that's the general attitude amongst Chevy and GMC dealers across the country, where the twin pickups are getting butchered in sales by competitors offering up to $9,000 off their sticker prices. Part of the problem for GM is that its trucks are arriving on the market near the end of the current F-150's lifecycle, a fact that Ford has taken advantage of.

GMC Hummer EV range is 329 miles; deliveries in December

It'll be a very Hummer Christmas for some households, as General Motors says it will begin deliveries of the electric GMC Hummer pickup in December, according to GMC boss Duncan Aldred. And we now know the truck's EPA range number: 329 miles on a charge. GM had previously predicted the Hummer would achieve a range of 350 miles.  That 329-mile figure applies to the Hummer Edition 1, the top-of-the-line, $100,000-plus iteration that will be the first trucks off the line. The Edition 1 will also tow up to 7,500 pounds and carry up to 1,300 pounds. Aldred told reporters on a conference call that subsequent, less-pricey models will achieve longer ranges and will be along in 2023. GMC HUMMER EV View 7 Photos More than 80% of Hummer reservations are for the Edition 1, though. Aldred said almost half of the 125,000 people who have expressed interest in the Hummer have put down $100 to reserve one. GM has said the first year of Hummer production is sold out. The Hummer EV joins the Rivian R1T as the first electric pickups to market. Ford's F-150 Lightning rolls out in 2022, and other electrics from Detroit and startups are expected to roll out after that. Tesla is building a $1 billion facility in Austin, Texas, that will, among other things, build the Cybertruck, though timelines on that have come and gone. The Hummer, by contrast, was developed in just 18 months. It made a big splash last week when President Biden took the wheel during a tour of GM's Factory Zero assembly plant in Hamtramck, Mich. Biden gleefully demonstrated the acceleration of the four-ton, 1,000-horsepower truck, which is said to do 0-to-60 in 3.1 seconds. He then declared, "This sucker's something else." Next up for GM's EV push will be the Cadillac Lyriq SUV in 2022. The electric Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups will be revealed Jan. 5. And the SUV version of the Hummer will be introduced in 2023. Aldred expects the SUV to ultimately make up the majority of Hummer sales. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.