General Motors has inaugurated a substantial new design campus in Pasadena, California, which encompasses 148,000 square feet across three separate buildings. This facility will serve as GM's primary center for conceptual vehicle design, housing around 100 designers and artisans focused on future automotive innovations.
To celebrate the opening, GM unveiled the GMC HUMMER X, a duo of concept vehicles that are not intended for production but aim to explore novel manufacturing techniques and materials. Central to these concepts is a new manufacturing method named FLEX FAB, which allows for on-demand production of metal body panels without the need for traditional stamping tools. This innovative approach enables a variety of designs and expedites the production process, with FLEX FAB accounting for 57% of the components in both the truck and SUV versions of the HUMMER X.
Hussein Al Attar has been appointed as the director of the new design studio, succeeding Brian Smith, who will rejoin the Chevrolet Corvette design team in Michigan. The Pasadena facility is equipped for both full-size clay modeling and digital collaboration, and it emphasizes forward-thinking designs that envision the future of vehicles over the next decade.