By Jim Newell
Managing Editor
DETROIT — General Motors announced on Tuesday that it will push back production of electric pickup trucks at its Orion Assembly Plant until late 2025.
GM said the delay is due to slowing U.S. demand for electric vehicles, to make some engineering changes and better manage its capital investments, the company said in a statement.
The Orion Assembly Plant on Giddings Road had been slated to start making the electric Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups sometime in 2024 but production will now be pushed back at least a year.
A GM spokesperson said the change has nothing to do with the ongoing four-week partial strike by members of the United Auto Workers union.
“What’s happening in the marketplace does play a factor,” said GM spokesperson Kevin Kelly, adding that the company wants to make engineering changes that will improve the trucks’ profitability.
About 1,000 workers at the Orion plant will keep building the Chevrolet Bolt hatchback small electric car and Bolt electric utility vehicle through the end of this year as planned, the company said in the statement.
Workers will be offered positions at other Michigan factories until their plant reopens, the statement said.
GM is ending production of the Bolt EV and Bolt EUV at the end of this year. Employees there will be able to transfer to other facilities, Kelly said.
The Orion facility has 1,261 employees, according to GM’s website.
In January 2022, GM announced it would invest $4 billion to convert the Orion plant for electric truck production on GM’s new Ultium platform for EVs.
The investment is part of GM’s effort to lead in the electric vehicle (EV) industry. By the end of 2025, GM wants to have more than 1 million units of electric vehicle capacity in North America, according to the company in 2022.
“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 U.S., and our North American EV production capacity,” said Mary Barra, GM Chair and CEO in 2022 when the investment was announced. “We are building on the positive consumer response and reservations for our recent EV launches and debuts. Our plan creates the broadest EV portfolio of any automaker and further solidifies our path toward U.S. EV leadership by mid-decade.”
The investment was expected to create 4,000 new jobs and retain 1,000 other jobs and significantly increase battery cell and electric truck manufacturing capacity, GM stated.