General Motors (GM) recently announced that it will invest $300 million in its assembly plant at Orion Township, Michigan, to produce a new Chevrolet electric vehicle (EV) that will bring 400 new jobs to the plant. The announcement is part of GM’s new commitment to invest a total of $1.8 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations, creating 700 new jobs and supporting 28,000 jobs across six states.
The 400 additional jobs are incremental to numbers associated with GM’s transformation announcement last fall. The new Chevrolet EV is in addition to the company’s earlier announcement that Cadillac will be the first brand to get vehicles off a future EV platform.
"We are excited to bring these jobs and this investment to the U.S.," said Mary Barra, GM chairman and CEO. "This new Chevrolet electric vehicle is another positive step toward our commitment to an all-electric future. GM will continue to invest in our U.S. operations where we see opportunities for growth."
The new electric vehicle had been slated for production outside the United States. The decision to bring it to the Orion plant was based on many factors, including the fact that the new Chevrolet EV will be based off an advanced version of the same vehicle architecture as the Bolt EV, which is currently built by the Orion plant. In addition, moving production to a U.S. manufacturing plant supports the rules of origin provisions in the proposed United States, Mexico and Canada agreement.
Along with the job growth at the Orion plant, GM has reported job opportunities at several other U.S. manufacturing plants for virtually all U.S. hourly employees impacted by the recent announcement of unallocated plants. Other GM manufacturing plants adding jobs include Flint, Michigan; Spring Hill, Tennessee; Bowling Green, Kentucky; Arlington, Texas; and Toledo, Ohio.
For the 2,800 impacted U.S. hourly employees at GM’s unallocated plants, GM has confirmed it has 2,700 openings across its U.S. manufacturing plants. To date, 1,100 employees have been placed at other GM plants, with several hundred more in the process of being placed in new jobs.
The Orion assembly plant, which currently builds the Chevrolet Bolt EV, Chevrolet Sonic and Cruise AV test vehicles, employs approximately 880 hourly and 130 salaried employees. Including the new investment, GM has invested nearly $1 billion at the plant since 2009.
With the $300 million investment at Orion for the future Chevrolet EV, GM also announced a total investment of $1.8 billion across its U.S. manufacturing operations, adding 700 new jobs and supporting 28,000 jobs across six states. This investment commitment includes the recently announced investments at its facilities in Spring Hill, Tennessee; Lansing Delta Township, Michigan; and Romulus, Michigan. Additional facilities receiving investments will be announced later. Since 2009, GM has invested more than $22 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations.
For more information, visit www.gm.com.
