General Motors keeps putting its money where its mouth is, revealing plans today to invest $7 billion at four plants to expand electric vehicle and battery production.
The company’s largest single investment ever, according to GM President Mark Reuss, gives it the capacity to produce 1 million EVs annually by the end of 2025. The company’s stated goal is to be the “EV market leader in North America by 2025.”
The deal, which includes at least $1 billion in incentives from the state, although some reports put that number at $2.5 billion, creates 4,000 new jobs and retains 1,000, GM officials noted. About $4 billion will go into GM’s Orion (MI) plant, which currently builds the Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV.
That site will also produce the coming Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EVs as well as Cruise autonomous vehicles. The plant will see 2,350 new jobs created as part of the upgrades, in addition to keeping the 1,000 workers already there in place.
In addition, the company plans to invest $2.6 billion to build a new Ultium cell plant near Lansing, Michigan. The plant is a joint venture with LG Energy, which GM already partners with on plants in Lordstown, Ohio and Spring Hill, Tennessee. A fourth plant is coming, but Reuss declined to offer specifics on where it may be located.
GM’s plans
The Orion and Ultium Cells Lansing investments will support an increase in total full-size electric truck production capacity to 600,000 trucks when both Factory Zero and Orion facilities, Reuss noted. Full-size pickups are GM’s best-selling vehicles, so demand is likely to be strong.
“So, you know, as we see the transition happening, we know the adoption rate has really increased over the last year or two,” Reuss said during a call with journalists Tuesday morning. “So we’ve done that research and so we see the acceptance of the newly introduced Silverado as very positive and high as well.”
GM’s also looking down the road, investing $510 million in two Lansing-area assembly plants so they can provide the company with the flexibility it needs going forward. The Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant is being prepped to handle the next generation of Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave. Meanwhile the Lansing Grand River Assembly site is getting unspecified updates.
“(W)e’re going to be very agile because we have our existing truck plans. in place to handle the internal combustion engine variants as well as much as our customers want,” Reuss said. “So, you know, that’s the way we’re approaching it very agile, very, very much a foot in both camps as we as we do this transition.”
