General Motors is investing $40 million at its Pontiac Stamping plant and creating 20 new job positions in the process.
GM will renovate the existing plant and install new, highly flexible fabrication machinery and presses to support future electric vehicle production and the production of traditional gasoline vehicles that the automaker currently produces. GM declined to offer more specific details on production.
GM spokesman Dan Flores said the open positions, most of which will be hourly, will be filled with current employees, closer to the start of production, a date that GM is not disclosing yet.
GM has said it will offer 30 new EVs by 2025 and it aspires for its entire light-duty lineup to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035.
Pontiac Stamping, which makes sheet metal used for vehicles, currently supports production at Orion Assembly in Orion Township and Factory ZERO in Detroit and Hamtramck.
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At Orion, GM is investing $402 million to build Chevrolet Bolt EV, Chevrolet Bolt EUV and Cruise AV test vehicles. GM said that investment will support 1,100 jobs.
Factory ZERO, which GM is spending $2.2 billion to retool to build only EVs, will start production later this year with the 2022 GMC Hummer EV pickup. In the future, GM will also build the Hummer EV SUV, a Chevrolet Silverado electric pickup and the Cruise Origin self-driving car at Factory ZERO.
GM recently announced it will invest $2 billion at Spring Hill Assembly in Tennessee to build the Cadillac Lyriq EV SUV alongside the internal combustion SUVs it presently builds. That investment will support 3,200 jobs, GM said.
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In a move the UAW is highly critical of, GM said last month that it will invest more than $1 billion at its manufacturing complex in Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, Mexico, to build EVs there. It will start operations in June 2021. GM is not disclosing which EVs will be made there.
GM is also investing $800 million in CAMI in Ontario, Canada, to build the EV600 electric delivery truck later this year for GM’s electric light commercial truck startup BrightDrop.
The renovation work at Pontiac Stamping will begin immediately, Flores said.
The new Flex Fab sheet metal fabricating technology it will install will enable repeatable, custom and precise stamping, Flores said. That will cut costs for what will be low-volume production. Flex Fab will require little or no additional tooling investments to fabricate new stampings for future products, he said.
“Our manufacturing capabilities create a competitive advantage for GM,” said Phil Kienle, GM vice president of North America Manufacturing and Labor Relations, in a statement.
GM currently employs 191 hourly and 31 salaried employees at Pontiac Stamping. The hourly workforce is represented by UAW Local 653.
The plant began production in 1926 as part of the Oakland Motor Car Company. It became part of the Pontiac Motor Division in 1932.
In a statement, UAW Vice President and Director of the General Motors Department Terry Dittes said: “UAW workers at Pontiac Stamping plant have a proud history of quality work. UAW GM members are proud to be using some of the latest technology available and add some new positions as they continue to innovate and build at this historic facility.”
Contact Jamie L. LaReau: 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.