GM opens Advanced Technology Center expansion in Torrance

General Motors unveiled the expansion of its Advanced Technology Center in Torrance on Thursday. It's where the company works on technology for future hybrids and other “green” cars.

The newly-expanded facility down the street from Torrance Memorial Hospital is GM’s eighth Advanced Technology Center in the region.

GM’s Dave Barthmuss says the Torrance facility has about 140 engineers – and with the expansion, could add more in the years to come. "So it just made sense to sort of add onto that capability because we’re going to be launching many more electric vehicles," Barthmuss says. "You know, the Chevy Volt’s in showrooms right now. California is the epicenter of automotive technologies. Everything spreads west to east. So if we’re going to really make a beachhead and succeed in this game, we’ve got to get it right in California."

Barthmuss says Californians are trendsetters in the automotive industry. "Not only from a consumer standpoint with what people buy, what they drive – they want to be, they want to have the first of everything – but also regulatory trends," Barthmuss says. "A lot of the emissions, a lot of the fuel economy issues, the greenhouse gas reduction goals are set in Sacramento and are later adopted by other states and maybe Washington, D.C."

Barthmuss says if a new car, like his company’s electric Chevy Volt, can’t compete in California, it probably won’t make it to the national market.

For Torrance, GM’s expanded tech facility means a steady flow of high-paying jobs into the future – something that’s helped to keep the city’s unemployment rate well below the state average.