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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

General Motors Chooses Concord, North Carolina, for Racing Technical Center

01/27/2020
General Motors will open a new technical center focused on performance and racing in Concord, North Carolina.

The 75,000-square-foot facility will be located off of Interstate-85 and less than 10 miles from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The new technical center will provide an opportunity to recruit potential GM employees from the growing pool of technical talent in the Charlotte area. It is expected to open by mid-2020.

According to company officials, the facility will expand GM’s performance and racing capabilities, with a focus on transferring knowledge and resources from the racing programs to core vehicle engineering. The goal for the Charlotte Technical Center is to eventually house future technology and engineering development capabilities.

“We’re thrilled to expand GM’s U.S. footprint by establishing a greater presence in Charlotte, a community that has become a racing and engineering mecca,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. vice president of Performance and Motorsports. “The new facility will be close to a number of key Chevrolet and Cadillac racing partners, teams and suppliers. This will allow for improved collaboration as well as access to some of the industry’s best talent.”

The new technical center provides GM the opportunity to expand and enhance its support for Chevrolet NASCAR race teams as well as various other GM racing teams. The facility will feature Driver-in-the-Loop simulators, vehicle simulation, aero development and other practices designed to advance racing and production capabilities.

“Chevrolet and Cadillac Racing are two of the winningest brands in motorsports. This new facility will build upon their legacies and hopefully lead to even more success on the track,” said Campbell. “Racing helps us accelerate the development, performance and popularity of our cars and trucks across the world.”

Development technologies often make their way from the racing world to production vehicles, company officials noted. Computational Fluid Dynamics, scale model testing and rolling wind-tunnel testing were all pioneered in racing and are now used extensively in production vehicle development.

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