GM General Motors Company

By Gautham Nagesh 

General Motors Co. plans to add about 800 manufacturing jobs at in Tennessee as part of nearly $1 billion earmarked for powertrain investments at a pair of factories.

A $789 million Tennessee investment, announced Wednesday, represents the bulk of the spending and will pave the way for a new engine to be built at a plant in Spring Hill that makes crossover sport utilities. Since 2010, GM has announced more than $2 billion in investments for the factory, which initially was expected to close during the company's 2009 bankruptcy and the discontinuation of Saturn.

Spring Hill had once been home to the Saturn brand. The factory now turns out the Cadillac XT5, a vehicle at the center of GM's effort to remake the luxury brand. The auto maker didn't specify the size of the engine that will be built at the factory.

The plant represented GM's least utilized factory in 2015, according to WardsAuto.com, which provides data on the auto industry, amid a slew of product changeovers and expansion efforts.

GM earlier this week temporarily idled Spring Hill and three other assembly plants due to supply-chain problems related to the recent earthquakes in Southern Japan. A GM spokesman said there is no change in the scheduled shutdown, and said the plan is for the Spring Hill plant to make up the lost production at some point.

Spring Hill just started shipping the new XT5, which is a crucial piece of GM's attempted revitalization of the Cadillac brand. The spokesman said there is no expectation that expansion plans or temporary shutdown will delay or impact the XT5 launch in any way. The plant is also ramping up production for the launch of a redesigned GMC Acadia.

An additional $118 million will be invested in GM's Bay City Powertrain facility, which creates engine components for Spring Hill and other powertrain plants. GM said that investment will lead to 29 new jobs and the retention of 67 jobs.

Write to Gautham Nagesh at gautham.nagesh@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2016 16:38 ET (20:38 GMT)

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