More than 100 firefighters battled a blaze at the General Motors Advanced Design Studio in California earlier this week, which destroyed at least one priceless concept car and took almost eight hours to extinguish.
The fire, according to US publication Car and Driver, started at 5:50pm local time on Wednesday (October 22), and took around seven-and-a-half hours to be declared officially extinguished.
Nobody was injured during the fire.
Reports suggested lithium-ion battery packs and petrol-powered prototypes were part of the ignition source of the fire, however, an investigation to confirm the cause is yet to be completed.
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“The isolated fire was contained to a single design concept vehicle and did not spread to any other vehicles, design concepts, or the building itself,” GM told Car and Driver.
Lithium-ion batteries are known to pose unique challenges to firefighters, since they can generate temperatures of up to 1000 degrees Celsius during ‘thermal runway’, as well as toxic gas emissions.
As well as the electrified vehicles themselves, lithium-ion battery fires have caused significant damage to and losses within nearby vehicles and building structures.
A major transport company banned electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) from its cargo ships in July 2025, citing safety concerns after a rival company lost a vessel that was ferrying EVs and hybrids from China to Mexico.
The design studio was opened by GM in 2024 as part of a US$71 million (A$109m), 13,843 square-metre campus able to produce everything from initial design sketches to complete production prototypes.
It also looked to tap into the ‘early-adopter culture’ of California and worked closely with the nearby GM North Hollywood campus to spot emerging trends and new design directions.
Among the products to emerge from the studio are the Corvette concept revealed in July, which the company said “reflects GM’s deep roots in the SoCal [Southern California] design community”.
GM’s Australian design studio, operated by Holden, opened in 1964 at Fishermans Bend in Melbourne, and was closed in 2020 when the Holden brand was axed.
Australian Michael Simcoe, whose career started in 1983 with Holden and included work on the 2001 Holden Monaro and 2006 VE Commodore, became head of GM Global Design in 2016 before retiring from the role in June.
