New GM Board first meeting is serious about getting new FE vehicles fast, and decides to keep Volt

New General Motors board tells management to bring vehicles to market more quickly

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- At its first meeting, the board overseeing the new General Motors Co. ordered management to bring some new vehicles to market faster, a sign that the new 13-member board will play a far larger role than the old one.

Board Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr., in a conference call with reporters Wednesday, would not identify which vehicles were pulled ahead, but said the board of the government-controlled company emphasized fuel efficiency as well as other areas.

"I'll tell you there were some suggestions made," said Whitacre, former CEO of telecommunications giant AT&T. "There were some changes made. This board's going to be very active. We're charged with doing well for the stockholders."

Many critics say GM's old board, once called a "pet rock" by former member H. Ross Perot, stuck with former Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner too long and failed to make management changes over the years.
New CEO Fritz Henderson already has ushered several top managers into retirement and moved up younger people

GM will stick with the Chevrolet Volt rechargeable electric car despite reservations about its prospects of making money that were expressed by members of the Obama administration's auto task force, Whitacre said.
The Volt, due in showrooms late next year, can go 40 miles on a single charge from a home electrical outlet. It has a small internal combustion engine on board to generate electricity for the car beyond that.
He called the Volt a "leap in technology" that no one else has, and said the country needs to move toward electric vehicles.

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GM board orders faster new vehicle rollout - Yahoo! Finance