DESIGN
DYNAMICS
HUFFINGTON
06.24.12
GM’s Vice
President
of Global
Design, Ed
Welburn,
in the
company’s
“Design
Dome.”
MARVIN SHAOUNI
“PEOPLE FALL IN LOVE—ED
WITH
A
CAR
WELBURN
FOR MANY REASONS.”
Still, observers say, the auto
industry’s present doesn’t look
much like the future promised
in buildings like this back when
Eisenhower was president. While
the industry has always had
striking, exciting “statement
cars,” mass-market models
have essentially remained
incrementally-modified boxes
balanced atop four wheels.
That’s in large part because
of how much its costs to
develop a new car: Jim Hall, a
consultant with 2953 Analytics
in Birmingham, Mich., says
automakers spend about