With three major auto manufacturing plants and nearly 1,000 auto suppliers scattered across the state, Tennessee has emerged as the primary driver behind the Southeast’s fast-growing automotive industry.
General Motors will add a third vehicle to its production lineup at its Spring Hill plant next year, news that came in contrast to the company’s announcement earlier Monday of a sweeping $6 billion cost-cutting plan across the country.
A future Cadillac crossover will be produced in Spring Hill, GM spokeswoman Courtney Jackson said Monday.
Bringing in a third vehicle provides the underused assembly plant outside Nashville with another model to fill production capacity. The plant, which already produces the crossover Cadillac XT5 and GMC Acadia midsize SUV, is scaled to assemble more than 250,000 vehicles per year.
The Detroit-based automaker on Monday announced plans to slash 15 percent of its salaried workforce, ceasing production at five plants in North America and discontinuing several passenger car models.
The move comes as the automaker prioritizes self-driving cars and electric vehicles, in addition to bigger vehicles that are outselling sedans.
The Spring Hill plant has been steadily hiring temporary workers from the Nashville region throughout the summer and fall. GM probably will not transfer idled workers from the company’s other facilities outside Spring Hill.
“We have just brought in third-shift workers to accommodate sales of the current crossovers and accommodate the new one,” Jackson said.
GM has about 3,000 employees in Spring Hill, including 398 salaried positions and 2,630 hourly workers.
The plant cut a third shift and eliminated about 700 jobs in 2017, but GM reinstated that shift this year as a result of increased market demand for the GMC Acadia and Cadillac XT5.
Trucks, SUVs helped Tennessee’s auto industry
GM’s Spring Hill plant, and Tennessee’s entire auto sector, has mostly been spared from huge layoffs in recent years because the state’s three major assembly plants have undergone expansions to meet growing consumer demand for crossovers, SUVs and trucks.
GM’s cost-cutting plan reinforces the automaker’s shift away from sedans to bigger vehicles. Beginning in March, the company will no longer make the Volt semi-electric car and the Cruze compact sedan for sale in North America.
GM also will end in March U.S. production of the Chevrolet Impala full-size car; Canadian production of that vehicle will cease in the fourth quarter of 2019. Also in March, the company will end U.S. sales of the Cadillac XTS and Buick LaCrosse. And the Cadillac CT6 will be killed off in the U.S. after mid-2019, though it will continue to be sold in China.
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The company said it expects more than 75 percent of its global sales volume will come from just five vehicle architectures by early next decade.
General Motors will close three assembly plants by the end of 2019, and lay off up to 5,600 workers. USA TODAY, USA TODAY
“The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. “We recognize the need to stay in front of changing market conditions and customer preferences to position our company for long-term success.”
GM’s closing plants
GM will shut production at three assembly plants in 2019 — Detroit-Hamtramck in Michigan, Lordstown in Ohio and Oshawa in Ontario. The vehicles produced at those plants include the Cruze sedan, Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Impala, Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra, Cadillac CT6 and the Buick LaCrosse. Those three plants employ about 5,600 workers.
Next year’s contract talks with the United Auto Workers union could potentially lead to decisions to reassign vehicles to those facilities, but there’s a serious chance the plants could close for good.
GM also will cease operations at a propulsion plant in Maryland, a transmission plant in Michigan and two additional plants outside North America by the end of 2019.
Overall, GM plans to cut 15 percent of its salaried and salaried contract workforce. GM offered buyouts to 18,000 workers several weeks ago.
Barra said these changes will make GM “lean and agile” as the company aims to “lead in autonomous and lead in electric vehicles.”
Contributing: USA Today reporter Nathan Bomey and Detroit Free Press reporter Jamie Lareau.
Reach Lizzy Alfs at lalfs@tennessean.com or 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs.
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