General Motors is to invest more than US$7bn in four of its US sites in the state of Michigan, significantly increasing battery cell and electric truck manufacturing capacity.
The investment includes construction of a new Ultium Cells battery cell plant in Lansing and the conversion of GM’s assembly plant in Orion Township for production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and the electric GMC Sierra, making it GM’s second assembly plant scheduled to build full-size electric pickups.
“Today we are taking the next step in our continuous work to establish GM’s EV leadership by making investments in our vertically integrated battery production in the US, and our North American EV production capacity,” said Mary Barra, GM chair and CEO.
“We are building on the positive consumer response and reservations for our recent EV launches and debuts, including GMC Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, Chevrolet Equinox EV and Chevrolet Silverado EV. Our plan creates the broadest EV portfolio of any auto maker and further solidifies our path toward US EV leadership by mid-decade.”
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 GM’s Factory Zero and Orion facilities are fully ramped.
