Finally, I get to brag about what I do for a living or at least about the product my company produces.
Warning, the External link is to a PDF file.
Yes, for the past 1.5 years of my working life, I have been involved with the design of the battery pack, from Link, I can now finally brag about (some). Cobasys is supplying the NiMH battery pack for the 2006 Green Line Saturn Vue. Our competition.... Panasonic and Sanyo, which are some biggies. Of course, some may argue that there is such a big demand right now, that the two biggies are not big enough to supply the demand right now, but that is irrelevant, since our foot is in the door. This is a win for an American company and therefore I could rightfully say, not all manufacturing jobs are going out of the country.
It has allowed me to see the Automotive Industry and understand why the hell it costs so much to design cars in this day and age. To some degree, it isn't a matter of how hard it is, but more a matter of let us make it right, so that the Company doesn't have to recall the items in the future. You can tell this by the quality of the cars being produced and the lifetime expantancy of cars today. It is just a shame the car companies don't improve the time and distance of the full warranty. If I ever buy a new car, it beter have a longer term warranty.
I was involved in the desgn of the wire harness, then moved onto the testing and validation of the battery system. Lots of fun and it has allowed me to be involved with everything about it.