Chevrolet Bolt
General Motors and LG (a Korean electronics company) has partnered up the production of 2017 Chevrolet Bolt which is supposed to be an affordable all electric car priced at around 35,000 dollars and able to go 200 miles on a single charge. LG will be supplying General Motors with a lot of the components that are needed to build an electric car. According to gmauthority.com LG will be providing GM with all of the following: Electric Drive Motor (built from GM design), Power Invertor Module (converts DC power to AC for the drive unit, On Board Charger, Electric Climate Control System Compressor, Battery Cells and Pack, High Power Distribution Module (manages the flow of high voltage to various components), Battery Heater, Accessory Power Module (maintains low-voltage power delivery to accessories), Power Line Communication Module (manages communication between vehicle and a DC charging station), Instrument Cluster, Infotainment System.
GM is a car company. LG, although not a company whose main focus is cars, also has a component within the company called LG Electronics Vehicle Components that work on cars. Also LG has multiple subsidiaries such as LG Chem, and LG Electronics that have worked on technology for electric vehicles and also LG has been looking to become a “key player in next-generation vehicular technologies”. The trend for cars nowadays is to go electric and Tesla leading this trend. We can view Tesla as a common enemy for GM and LG since Tesla is both a car company which is leading in vehicular technology.
We have learned in class what is means to be structurally balanced. According to the structural balance property, a triangle is structurally balanced if all three sides are positives or if only one side is positive. This is the case in the case presented above. The line connecting GM to LG is positive while the line connecting GM to Tesla and the line connecting LG to Tesla is negative. Thus in the GM, LG, Tesla triangle, there is only one positive. This is a very natural occurrence. GM and LG are both competing with Tesla and so it makes sense for them to become allies in order to take defeat this common enemy. In this situation, this development makes even more sense that GM which has more expertise in cars partnered up with LG which can provide the technology to take on Tesla the big car company that has a reputation for its advanced tech.
Source:
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/general-motors/2015/10/20/gm-partners-lg-companies-develop-chevy-bolt-ev/74263840/
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2015/10/lg-electronics-officially-partner-with-general-motors-for-essential-chevrolet-bolt-hardware/
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/general-motors-lg-partnership-on-chevrolet-bolt-may-be-roadmap-for-future-deals/articleshow/49472764.cms