GM Picks Detroit Factory to Build Driverless Shuttle, Electric Trucks -- Update
January 27 2020 - 12:25PM
Dow Jones News
By Mike Colias
General Motors Co. said it will build a new autonomous vehicle
at a plant in Detroit, solidifying its hometown as a hub of future
technology as it bets big on driverless and electric vehicles.
GM will manufacture a self-driving people-mover for Cruise, its
San Francisco-based autonomous-vehicle subsidiary, at the auto
maker's Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, the company said Monday.
GM said production of the vehicle would come "soon after" it starts
building its first new vehicle, an electric pickup truck, in late
2021.
Cruise last week revealed the driverless electric vehicle,
called the Origin, a pod-like passenger shuttle with no steering
wheel, pedals or other manual driving controls.
The factory was slated for closure before GM reversed course
with a $3 billion overhaul plan, outlined in a new four-year labor
contract in October that ended a 40-day strike at the company's
U.S. factories by the United Auto Workers. GM said Monday the
investment includes $2.2 billion at the factory site and another
$800 million in supplier investment and other related projects
nearby.
About 900 workers at the factory will be laid off temporarily by
late February as renovations begin. GM said most are expected to
get work at other factory locations.
GM in late 2018 set plans to wind down the operation amid weak
sales of several models built at the plant, including the Cadillac
CT6 sedan and the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car.
Cruise and GM executives won't peg a timetable for starting a
commercial autonomous-taxi service. Cruise had targeted late 2019
for the start of an operation in San Francisco but backtracked,
citing the need for more testing.
Autonomous-vehicle developers have scaled back plans over the
past two years, due in part to stubborn technical challenges and
uncertainty around regulations for self-driving vehicles.
For example, federal law doesn't allow vehicles on public roads
without manual controls, such as steering wheels and brake pedals.
GM two years ago applied for a waiver from the Department of
Transportation for permission to put some of its Cruise vehicles
into service. The department hasn't ruled on the request.
The plan to build the driverless Cruise vehicle at the
Detroit-Hamtramck plant is part of a broader revitalization effort
at GM's lone remaining Detroit factory, located just a few miles
from the auto maker's skyscraper headquarters along the Detroit
River.
The 35-year-old factory also will be the site of production for
several electric-truck models, making it the company's first
assembly plant to make electric models exclusively. After an
extensive renovation, the first model it is expected to produce is
a battery-powered Hummer pickup truck that will mark a revival of
the Hummer name after it was phased out a decade ago, people
familiar with the plans have said. A GM spokesman declined to
comment.
GM President Mark Reuss said the plant will build multiple
electric trucks and sport-utility vehicles across different brands
and price points. He said it isn't clear when electric-vehicle
demand will take off, but GM must be ready when it does.
"Nothing happens by throwing a light switch, making the vehicles
and then suddenly everybody adopts them," Mr. Reuss told reporters
during an event at the factory Monday. "We have to plan for that
adoption and that [electric] portfolio to eventually become the
standard."
Detroit is in line for an infusion of auto-industry investment
after decades of seeing the sector fade. GM's plant is a few miles
from the site of a $1.6 billion Fiat Chrysler factory under
construction that eventually will produce Jeep vehicles. It will be
the first new vehicle-assembly plant in Detroit in decades.
Combined, the two projects are expected to create nearly 9,000
jobs in coming years, in a politically important state that
President Trump narrowly won in 2016.
Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 27, 2020 12:10 ET (17:10 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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