General Motors has commissioned its India Design Studio at Bangalore in a move to further strengthen its global presence and provide world-class design services to GM’s operations in India and other parts of the world. The new infrastructure will enable the design studio to play a growing role in the GM Design network. With help from technologies such as a clay milling capability, along with supporting equipment and virtual reality technology, the GM India Design Studio will contribute to the mid-cycle enhancement of existing models and the advanced design of future products. High-tech visualization equipment will allow for surface quality reviews, which are needed to support interior trim work. In addition, the digital (alias) surfacing skills of the GMTCI team will be enhanced through interaction with clay by enabling the sculptor to see and feel physical surfaces created in a virtual environment. 

The GM India Design Studio will be capable of supporting a global design strategy for GMTCI, making it GM’s center of expertise for interior trim and component surfacing, and enabling it to progress toward developing a full studio capability. The studio will also play a key role for the GM Design network as a “listening post” in India to gather and understand local product design requirements. The GM India Design Studio will complement the four-year-old GMTCI. One of four GM technical centers in the Asia Pacific region, GMTCI has a base of more than 900 employees who are carrying out important research and development and engineering work for GM in India and globally. The design studio also will work with GM’s Halol manufacturing facility as well at its Pune plant, which opens in the fourth quarter of 2008.