General Motors Co. will stop producing its Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles at the end of this year as it moves to transition the Orion Assembly plant for production of new electric trucks, CEO Mary Barra told investors Tuesday.
“Work also continues to transform our assembly plant in Orion Township, Michigan, to build the GMC Sierra EV and the Chevrolet Silverado EV. We have progressed so far that it’s now time to plan to end the Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV production, which will happen at the very end of the year,” Barra said. “When Orion EV Assembly reopens in 2024 and reaches full production, employment will nearly triple and we’ll have a companywide capacity to build 600,000 electric trucks annually.”
GM’s investing $4 billion at Orion Assembly to build its electric trucks, which are based on the company’s new electric platform, Ultium. It’s been expected that GM would eventually end production of the Bolt because it’s not based on the Ultium platform and since GM named Orion as an EV truck plant.
GM introduced its Bolt to the market in late 2016 and brought the larger EUV in 2021. In 2021, the automaker had to recall all Bolts for battery fire risk as the result of manufacturing defects. After working through the recall, GM dropped the Bolt’s prices and aimed to achieve record sales of the electric car.
More:GM opens next electric chapter with new pair of Michigan-made Bolts
In the first quarter of this year, GM for the first time sold 20,000 electric vehicles mostly as a result of the Bolt’s sales, which increased 54 times to record levels. GM is expecting record production of the Bolts of more than 70,000 this year before production ends.
In a statement, Chevy spokesperson Chad Lyons said: “When the Chevrolet Bolt EV launched, it was a huge technical achievement and the first affordable EV, which set in motion GM’s all-electric future.”
In addition to the Silverado, Chevrolet is also launching production of the electric Equinox and Blazer this year.
khall@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @bykaleahall