
Thinking time: that vital period when a CEO or senior manager is free to reflect, to contemplate the future, and hopefully come up with strategies that drive a company forward. Too many leaders fill their weekly schedule with endless meetings, responding to questions, solving staff issues and struggling with management problems. Anything but thinking ahead.
For Michael Simcoe, senior vice president of global design at General Motors – a position that comes with a staff of circa-2000 – thinking time is achieved not in his legendary, Eero Saarinen-designed office, but the shower. And, of more interest to us, while working on his classic bikes and cars in the garage at home in Birmingham, a suburb north of Detroit. His Corvette E-Ray lives outside. Currently, Michael’s rebuilding the front and rear suspension of his Lancia Fulvia 1.6 HF. And thinking.

Simcoe’s innate fine taste, his sense of style, and the importance of proportion couldn’t be better illustrated than by the exquisite Lancia B20 GT that fills one side of the garage. Living with aesthetic elegance, beautiful cars, like the original Lotus Elite that’s being restored in the UK, or the Aston Martin DB4 that’s back home in Australia, can’t help but positively influence his thinking. How do I know this? Eighteen months ago in an email exchange, Simcoe outlined his new design studios, and asked: “How would you like to be part of the new building opening with full access to the studios?”
Turning down such an offer was never an option. As the opening was delayed, my adventure grew to include GM’s design studios in California, the UK, and the revamped China facility. Now my problem is condensing the story of four studios into Mister Editor Enright’s 2000-word limit.
Simcoe set out to change the (GM) world when he assumed design leadership eight years ago. Under CEO Mary Barra and Michael’s direct boss, President Mark Reuss, a persuasive Simcoe has new advanced design studios in Pasadena, Leamington Spa and Shanghai, as well as a production studio in South Korea.

But not even Simcoe could keep Holden’s design studio open. It closed in 2020 and the wounds remain. GM won’t put a figure on the recent global spend on design – conservatively, it stretches to around A$4bn. Simcoe’s promotion to a Senior Vice President in December 2022 means that within GM, Design has more power than at any time since Bill Mitchell retired in 1977.
The evidence of Michael’s influence is all too obvious as he shows me through GM’s wondrous new Warren design studio. No details, of course, but good taste radiates the full-scale EV (and a few ICE) models and proposals: sports cars, GTs, crossovers, both luxury and sports sedans, SUVs and truck proposals.
SKETCH SHOW
Why Simcoe directs, not draws
Does Simcoe still sketch cars to make a point with his younger designers?
To remember, Michael pauses before answering: “Not in the last two years. There’s a danger of being seen as ‘The voice of God’. What’s the point – so many people are better (at drawing) than I am. I can get myself out of trouble if I need to. My job is to stave off the politics...I know I’m not easy to work for. I’m pretty demanding.”
Now, after decades of planning that began in the early 2000s, GM’s glistening low-slung wing flanks the famed Design Dome to unite more than 700 designers under one roof. Fully operational, Design West measures a vast 33,445 square metres, almost twice the size of the MCG, to transform the way GM designs cars.
“It’s all one big barn, basically,” says Simcoe. “Essentially the building is open, there are no walls.”
When Eero Saarinen’s (the architect who chose Jorn Utzon’s design for the Sydney Opera House) technical centre was inaugurated in 1956, each of GM’s divisions had their own closely guarded studio. It was a time when the brands were in direct competition and secrecy was everything. No longer.
Design West houses all of GM’s “brand” studios: Cadillac, Buick, GMC and Chevrolet, in a vast, open area that’s laid out so the designers, plus the sculptors, strategy and brand people, and, crucially, the chief engineer are in one place. The ground floor is dedicated to exterior, interior, and clay modelling areas, including multiple flush-mounted modelling plates and 44 clay-milling sites for the full-scale models.
“It’s all about collaboration,” claims Simcoe. “Design has always been this place where the empire closes the doors. In recent years, we tried to open that up, but we didn’t have the space to bring in all the people we need. We can do that now.”

The mezzanine floor provides a viewing platform – no longer do designers need to climb ladders to get a plan view of their work – as well as offices and meeting areas. Under the mezzanine are the people who need to have a dark environment to the screen.
By their very nature, design studios are confidential, but here there’s an abundance of natural light, with floor to ceiling glass, and overhead strip lighting that can be varying in intensity so the designers can see their models in changeable degrees of brightness. Acoustic material helps isolate sound so it’s also quiet. This is a great place to work.
Among the building’s many highlights is a presentation room with a 55 foot (16.7 metre), 77-million-pixel power wall that splits screens and is used for global design reviews.

There’s also a hidden door that opens to reveal an area large enough for a full-scale model, perfect for Reuss’s weekly visits. One corridor stretches 305 metres. From Simcoe’s office to the extremes of Design West is 1.6 kilometres, or a US statute mile. Michael needs a pushbike, not his Ducati 900 SS that greets guests when they step into his office.
Simcoe is rightly proud of GM’s commitment to design. He knows design is the great differentiator in the EV age when generic SUVs, especially those from China, are commonplace. Assume grille-less, rounded-off shapes, slim headlights, flush door handles and rear diffuser.
The steady flow of impressive concepts – Buick Wildcat and Riviera – and production cars like the Cadillac Lyriq, the 2025 Escalade and Chevy Blazer EV continue. The Rolls-Royce-challenging Cadillac Celestiq sedan (which started in Design) and Sollei convertible, and the Opulent Velocity, prove GM is serious in reestablishing Caddy in the ultra-luxury class. At the other extreme, the affordability of EVs is becoming ever more significant.

It’s also clear that, despite sharing the same underpinnings, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac are establishing their own individual and easily recognised design languages. All clean and refined, and without the overwrought surfaces, lines and shapes of too many of today’s cars.
We all know any design teams’ work can only be as good as management allows. Seems under Reuss, Simcoe and fellow Australian Andrew Smith, who runs the advanced design studios, anything is possible. You need proof? Published reports by unofficial Corvette websites insist Corvette is to do a Porsche and expand beyond sports cars to include sedans and SUVs.
I couldn’t possibly comment.

GM’s presence in Southern California dates to the 1980s. The previous design studio in Hollywood was leased but, when that expired in 2021, GM decided to buy a much larger building in Pasadena, just eight kilometres from two schools important to recruiting future talent: the ArtCentre College of Design and CalTech.
“There’s always been a fascination with the automotive culture and the design thinking that happens here in California,” says Brian Smith, design director at GM Advanced Design California. “It’s very different logic to the rest of the world, and very different to where GM is in Detroit.”
“We really believe in physical models,” Andrew Smith explained. “We can do really detailed digital visualisation, but we believe in making models.”

Brian Smith adds: “We’ve got four clay milling stations versus one, which enables us to quickly make models from data. We’ve got six modelling plates versus the three we had in North Hollywood; two build plates instead of one; and we’ve also got more digital screens: two 16-foot LED walls, and a 20-foot portable LED wall. With full concept build capability on site, we can go straight from sketch to clay to a running vehicle in six months.”
“This studio is really going to be responsible for pushing boundaries,” says Andrew Smith. “Our job is to support the GM mission of zero emissions, zero crashes, and zero congestion, and in California we’re in the right environment of early adopters who are ready to embrace EV and AV technology.”
What of right-hand drive? We know the Corvette and various Cadillacs EVs are RHD from the factory. Most of the conversion issues are solved by steer-by-wire, a system that replaces the mechanical link between steering wheel and front wheels. Already fitted to the Tesla Cybertruck and Lexus RZ450e, drive-by-wire makes the change from left- to right-hand drive easy. However, Australian design rules state that cars must retain a physical connection between the steering wheel and front wheels to act as a redundant control in case of an electrical failure.
CELESTIQ HOME
Designed and built in Warren, MI.
Yes, the Cadillac Celestiq really is the first car built on the Warren engineering and design campus since it opened in 1956.
GM invested over A$120,000 to create a small, purpose-built production line for the flagship sedan. The reason for this move?
An incredibly close bond between design and engineering was needed to bring this extraordinary and extravagant concept to life. As Celestiq design director Erin Crossley notes: “The level of detail that you can only get doing things by hand is incredible.”
One unintended consequence of GM selling Opel to PSA (now Stellantis) in 2017 was the loss of its European design centre in Germany. Time for a Simcoe think. Especially as GM’s gradual withdrawal from significant markets like Europe, India, Australia, South Africa and Russia, reduced the once globally dominant manufacturer (it’s now number five) to a regional car maker concentrating on the Americas and China.
Simcoe realised: “We needed alternative [design] options, fresh eyes, we needed the Europeans.”
Learning that Julian Thomson had resigned as head of Jaguar design, GM contacted the talented Brit and once his garden leave expired in December 2022, Thomson joined GM. With the help of designers poached from JLR and Aston Martin, he began work (from home) on two projects. The first: an alternative Corvette C9; the second: a secret project for GMC.
“We didn’t design a Ferrari or a Porsche and put a Corvette badge on it,” says Thomson. “We wanted to present a different point of view that didn’t duplicate the American work, but to be a positive influence.

In March 2023, the Corvette and GMC concepts were digitally presented to Simcoe and Mark Reuss. The British Corvette made such an impact that Julian, appointed design director, was immediately asked to establish Advanced Design UK, General Motors.
“We knew we had the right people,” Simcoe claims. “We knew we could build a studio around Julian Thomson – not to be better than the others, it just made good sense.”
Says Simcoe of the UK’s intriguing Corvette proposal: “It’s influenced what we’ve got, the proportions, but we don’t want Corvette to look like a European car, it’s very important that it remains American.”

Equipped with a large cheque book, plans for a technically advanced studio that drew on Design West, and an almost empty team sheet, Thomson started creating the studio in Leamington Spa, close to Coventry – the traditional home of the British motor industry. GM’s new studio, now home to 35 people, opened in October 2023.
It’s almost a mini version of Design West with its open plan, mezzanine viewing/office floor, two 20-metre-long modelling plates and six milling machines.
“We want to be complementary to the Mothership,” says Thomson. “We want to have projects with all the brands and design a diversity of models: SUVs, sedans, coupes, a hypercar.”

GM first opened a design studio in China, in partnership with SAIC, in 1998. Set up in Shanghai by former Holden design boss Phil Zmood, it’s now been replaced by a much-revamped studio. There is much to do. GM’s China sales slid by 29 percent in the second quarter of 2024, and its market share has dropped from a high of 15 percent to 8.6 percent last year.
GM (and all other car makers) face a near impossible task. How to compete with government-supported brands who put market share ahead of profitability? In China, the term 996 doesn’t refer to a Porsche model, but hours worked – 9.00am to 9.00pm, six days a week.
Cars – commodities like white goods in China – don’t need the same level of chassis sophistication. Nobody talks about the Nürburgring. What’s far more important is speed-to-market.

Stuart Norris, the Brit who runs GM’s Shanghai Advanced studio, says many of China’s circa-130 car makers have “development cycles of between 15 months [a new top hat] and two years [a new car].” That’s half the time demanded by rivals from elsewhere. Shorter development means the Chinese brands can more quickly incorporate the latest technology and changing consumer behaviour.
The recently renovated Shanghai studio incorporates new technology and has seen a doubling of the design team since 2021. The studio includes digital and clay modelling, a paint shop and, unlike the UK studio, has a CMF (colour, material, and finish) department. But the concept cars are built by local suppliers – just eight weeks from digital data to a full-sized model – and there is no mezzanine viewing floor.
Global studio tour over, I’m convinced that when, in 50 years, they write the history of GM design, the Simcoe era will rank with those of Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell as the most important in the corporation’s history. Michael’s thinking time has changed his (and GM’s) world.

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