Newswise — Decades of downsizing and dwindling North American sales have General Motors locked in a neck-and-neck race with Toyota for the title of the world's largest car company, a title that GM held for 70 years. The recent jump in gas prices gives an even bigger advantage to Toyota. GM is hoping that its upcoming Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car will leapfrog its rival's decade of experience in hybrid electric vehicles.
It's a risky move. Not since the earliest days of the industry has a car-maker tried to develop a new body and chassis and a new energy storage and power delivery system, all at the same time and all for the same car. But that's exactly what GM is doing.
The executive at the center of this whirlwind of activity is an African-American engineer in her 40s--one of very few black women in the auto industry's upper ranks. Denise Gray, unofficially GM's "battery czar," is the company's director of energy storage devices. Her job is nothing less than overseeing GM's efforts to develop a new generation of batteries that will give it an edge in electric vehicles. She's got a lot to do--and less than two years to get it done.
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