General Motors Co. is investing $920 million at its Ohio Duramax operations for production of diesel engines for future heavy-duty trucks, the company announced last week.
The investment supports GM’s future full-size heavy-duty truck business. Product details and timing related to GM’s coming HD powertrain trucks were not released.
The DMAX news came after GM made several investment announcements at its full-size truck and SUV assembly plants over the last few weeks.
The automaker is investing $632 million at its Fort Wayne Assembly Plant for production of the next-generation internal combustion engine light-duty Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. It’s also investing more than $500 million at its Arlington plant where the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban; GMC Yukon and Yukon XL; and Cadillac Escalade and Escalade-V are manufactured.
Additionally, GM announced investments for two Flint facilities — Flint Assembly and Flint Metal Center — totaling more than $1 billion and a $280 million Canadian investment at its Oshawa Assembly Plant in Ontario. Both investments are for GM’s next generation of full-size light-duty pickups. Oshawa workers make both heavy and light-duty trucks and Flint workers are focused on heavy-duty pickups.
GM has invested more than $32.6 billion in U.S. manufacturing and parts distribution since 2013, including DMAX, which was previously a joint venture with Isuzu Diesel Services of America Inc. DMAX has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of GM since May 2022.
The DMAX investment will support a 1.1-million square-foot expansion of a Brookville, Ohio, facility and cover the installation of new technology and equipment. The expansion will more than quadruple the size of the Brookville facility, GM said.
DMAX makes diesel engines for GM’s HD trucks at Brookville and at GM’s original DMAX plant is in Moraine, Ohio, about 30 minutes from the Brookville location, which opened in 2021.
GM plans to transition its Moraine employees to the Brookville plant as production ramps at the new facility. The automaker didn’t provide specifics on its plans for the Moraine facility once Brookville production is ramped up.
In an interview with the Dayton Daily News, Mike Trevorrow, vice president, GM North America manufacturing, said: “I think the original plant with DMAX has a good, long future with us. We’re going to continue to build the engine there. And then as we start the other (new Brookville) factory up, it’s a good opportunity for them (Moraine DMAX workers) to come and be part of the history of heavy-duty trucks continuing.”
khall@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @bykaleahall