Top Electric Vehicle Executive at General Motors Leaves to Start EV Consulting Firm
By Scott Doggett September 30, 2009
Bob Kruse, who recently led a team that played a key role in the development of the Chevrolet Volt and who crafted the automaker's long-term electric-vehicle strategy, has resigned effective today.
Kruse, executive director of global vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries since early last year, left to focus on an EV consulting company he founded last month.
He will provide automotive and vehicle electrification expertise for companies looking to seize a piece of more than $1.3 billion in federal grants available to Michigan and Detroit's major automakers.
"My departure from General Motors has nothing to do with my view of the future success for the Volt," Kruse said. "I've left on very good terms. I have a lot of respect for the leadership of General Motors."
GM spokesman Rob Peterson told Green Car Advisor that Kruse's resignation, coming only 13 months before the Volt's scheduled production launch, "won't have any impact" on the gasoline-electric hybrid sedan.
"There's never a good time to lose good people, but there's a deep bench with the Volt and that team was working together before Bob joined and they will continue to march on," he said.
Kruse's resignation comes at a crucial time for GM, which is banking on the Volt extended-range electric vehicle to help it meet stringent new government fuel-economy rules and to change the public's perception of the company as being an electric-car killer and a proponent of gas-guzzlers.
Kruse's department was largely responsible for designing and testing the Volt's lithium-ion battery and integrating it into the vehicle. Kruse is personally credited with having developed GM's battery and EV strategy beyond the Volt.
Although GM has emerged from bankruptcy and has recently received millions of dollars in low-interest loans from the federal government, the salaries of the company's executives are capped. Kruse, 50, will not face federally mandated income restrictions as a consultant.
Indeed, Kruse said he decided to leave after Vice President Joe Biden's announcement early last month that Michigan and Detroit's Big 3 automakers would receive more than $1.3 billion of the $2.4 billion in federal grants earmarked for development of the next generation of electric vehicles and the batteries that propel them.
A week later, Kruse formed E.V. Consulting LLC to advise clients with projects that would qualify them for the federal aid.
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