UAW Local 5960 member Kimberly Fuhr inspects a Chevrolet Bolt EV during vehicle production on May 6, 2021, at the General Motors Orion Assembly Plant in Orion Township, Michigan.
Steve Fecht for Chevrolet
DETROIT – General Motors said Tuesday it’s delaying production of all-electric trucks at a Michigan plant by at least a 12 months to “higher manage capital investments” and implement improvements in an effort to make the brand new EVs more profitable.
GM now plans to begin construction of its next-generation EVs at Orion Assembly in suburban Detroit by late 2025, as a substitute of next 12 months. The factory currently produces Chevrolet Bolt EV models, which GM will stop producing at the top of this 12 months.
The delay is the newest sign of potential trouble for the ambitious, multibillion-dollar plans of traditional automakers to move to electric vehicles. Adoption of EVs, which remain costly to produce and buy, has been slower than many expected.
“General Motors today confirmed it’ll retime the conversion of its Orion Assembly plant to EV truck production to late 2025, to higher manage capital investment while aligning with evolving EV demand. As well as, we now have identified engineering improvements that we’ll implement to increase the profitability of our products,” the corporate said in an announcement.
The change in plans shouldn’t be connected to the corporate’s ongoing contract negotiations with the United Auto Staff union, according to a GM spokesman. Nonetheless, the contentious talks do involve EVs, and current contract proposals by the corporate are expected to be costlier than those in 12 months’s past. The UAW, which represents staff at Orion Assembly, didn’t immediately respond for comment.
The production delay calls into query GM’s previously announced EV goals, including cumulative production of 400,000 EVs in North American from 2022 through mid-2024, which had already been pushed back. GM also has a goal to exclusively offer consumer EVs by 2035.
A GM spokesman late-Tuesday said there’s currently no change in plans to the corporate’s EV production targets.
Recent electric versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra that were supposed to be produced at Orion Assembly can be assembled at GM’s Factory Zero in Detroit, the corporate said. Limited production of the Silverado EV is underway, while Sierra is scheduled to begin next 12 months.
Alongside the Silverado EV, Factory Zero is currently constructing the GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV and Cruise Origin shuttle.
In January 2022, GM announced it might invest $4 billion to convert Orion Assembly to produce electric trucks. The plant was expected to be its second U.S. assembly plant to exclusively produce EVs. GM said construction includes significant facility and capability expansion at the positioning, including latest body and paint shops and latest general assembly and battery pack assembly areas.
Roughly 1,000 hourly staff at Orion Assembly can have the choice to transfer to other Michigan facilities until the retooling at Orion Assembly is accomplished.
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