General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is pushing back production of all-electric trucks at a Michigan plant to late 2025 in order to “better manage capital investments,” the automaker said Tuesday.
GM had planned to start construction of next-generation electric vehicles (EVs) at its Orion Assembly plant in suburban Detroit next year. The Orion plant currently makes Chevrolet Bolt EVs, which GM will stop producing at the end of 2023.
New electric versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra that would have been assembled at the Orion plant will now be built at GM’s Factory Zero in Detroit, the company said.
Meanwhile, about 1,000 hourly workers at Orion Assembly will be able to transfer to other facilities until the modifications at the plant are completed.
“General Motors today confirmed it will retime the conversion of its Orion Assembly plant to EV truck production to late 2025, to better manage capital investment while aligning with evolving EV demand,” the company said in a statement.
“In addition, we have identified engineering improvements that we will implement to increase the profitability of our products,” the company said in a statement.
The decision is not connected to the ongoing United Auto Workers strike against GM, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and Stellantis NV (NYSE:STLA, EPA:STLA), a GM spokesperson said, according to reports.
EV production is a topic of the negotiations, though.
Earlier this month, GM agreed that the workers at its future EV battery plans will be covered by the same national labor agreement governing other UAW members at GM. The company has argued in the past that those workers are not GM employees because the plants are operated by joint ventures the company has with Asian battery producers.
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