General Motors is making a $2.2 billion investment in an assembly plant entirely devoted to electric vehicles, the company announced today. The Detroit-Hamtramck plant will support 2,200 manufacturing jobs.
The plant will produce all-electric trucks and SUVs, with production of GM's first all-electric truck slated to begin in late 2021. GM executives say the company’s goal is to create lines of vehicles that don’t emit any carbon gasses.
“Through this investment, GM is taking a big step forward in making our vision of an all-electric future a reality,” said Mark Reuss, GM's president, during a press event Monday morning. “Our electric pickup will be the first of multiple electric truck variants we will build at Detroit-Hamtramck over the next few years.”
GM Executive Vice President Gerald Johnson says the next generation of cars and trucks will also be the safest vehicles ever built.
“In 2019, there were roughly 36,000 people who died in car accident," Johnson said. "Imagine the world would be different is those 36,000 people were here and their families intact. That’s the world we imagine.”
Currently, the Detroit-Hamtramck plant employs approximately 900 people, who produce and build the Cadillac CT6 and Chevrolet Impala. Renovations of the plant will begin at the end of February, and work will be idled for several months. Hourly employees at Detroit-Hamtramck are represented by UAW Local 22.
In a press release, GM noted that the support received from the state of Michigan was a key factor in the company's decision to bring the project to Detroit-Hamtramck.
“This investment helps ensure that Michigan will remain at the epicenter of the global automotive industry as we continue our journey to an electrified future," Reuss said.
LG Chem has partnered with GM and invested $2.3 billion in Lordstown, Ohio, where battery cells for the electric vehicles produced at Detroit-Hamtramck will be manufactured.
The announcement comes three months after GM and the United Auto Workers Union settled its longest walkout in decades.
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