GM to invest $325 million in electric vehicle parts manufacturing

On Friday General Motors announced it would be investing $325 million to support production of future electric vehicle components in its Warren, Mich. plant.

The money is to go toward tooling and equipment and would add or retain 418 jobs at the facility which currently has 679 employees.

“This investment in the future recognizes the excellent work force and operation of this plant,” said GM Manufacturing Manager Gerald Johnson. “While we aren’t sharing many details about this product, I can tell you that this investment demonstrates how GM, working with our UAW partners, continues to innovate and bring new electrification solutions to our customers.”

GM Warren Transmission employee Michael Burrows assembles a six-speed transmission on Friday in Warren, Mich.

No timing was given for when these EV-oriented upgrades would be made. Presently most of the plant’s employees are engaged in building six-speed automatic transmissions for the Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia crossover vehicles and Chevy Malibu sedan.

The suburban Detroit facility has 2.1 million square-feet of space, equivalent to the area of 15 city blocks, and in 2010 produced more than 338,000 transmissions.

Partial credit for adding EV parts to its production was taken by the United Auto Workers union, which negotiated the project and jobs during recently settled contract talks.

“We are very proud of the membership of UAW Local 909 whose hard work and dedication to building quality products is why this new electric drive unit module is being built in the United States,” said Joe Ashton, UAW vice president representing the GM Department. “These good paying, middle class jobs are very important for the State of Michigan and the Metro Detroit area. It is the UAW’s goal to increase employment at GM and show the world that we can compete with anyone.”

These are strong words that – added to GM’s comments – could partially allay concern among those who question GM’s commitment to electrification following news that it would introduce no new Voltec models until 2015.

The decision to build EV parts also adds a piece to the information puzzle following GM’s announced plans to co-develop electric vehicles with battery maker A123 Systems.

We do not know if Voltec parts would also be made at Warren, or if this is for the Spark EV, or battery electric vehicles yet to be made known.

The company has said it would build the Voltec-based Cadillac ELR and Spark EV, but has not specified their timing either.

Nor did GM disclose how many new jobs would be created to make electrified vehicle parts versus jobs that are merely being retained, so we have no idea of the scope of this initiative.

So go figure. At the rate of announcements in the past weeks and months, we would not be surprised to hear more dribs and drabs of EV news not long from now, but GM is being careful not to release information ahead of time.

The only story the company is telling loud in clear is regarding its big picture commitment to create more electrified vehicles, and to remain competitive with them on a world scale.

Source: GM-Volt.com