General Motors plans to spend $2 billion to convert its Spring Hill, Tennessee, assembly plant into a third U.S. site to build future electric vehicles.

The Detroit automaker also says it will spend another $153 million to upgrade five Michigan factories for future vehicles.

The company will build the Cadillac Lyriq, a small electric SUV at the Spring Hill factory. Gasoline-powered Cadillac SUVs will continue to be built at the plant, and it will also will get additional unspecified electric vehicles, GM said in a prepared statement Tuesday.

The Lyriq is due in showrooms sometime late in 2022. GM also is expected to announce details of an all-electric GMC Hummer pickup truck this week. They’re among 20 electric models the company plans to sell globally by 2023.

GM already has announced that electric vehicles will be built at its plant in Orion Township, Michigan, and at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, which straddles the border between the city of Detroit and the hamlet of Hamtramck.

Currently the 7.9-million-square-foot Spring Hill facility employs about 3,400 hourly workers who make the Cadillac XT5 and XT6 gas-powered SUVs as well as a GMC SUV. The complex, which is GM’s biggest in North America, also makes four engines that go into GM trucks and SUVs.

The paint and body shops at Spring Hill will see major expansions, and the general assembly area will get new machinery, conveyors, controls, and other equipment. Renovation of the plant will begin immediately, GM said in a statement.

The investments aren't expected to create additional jobs but will help keep the ones at the Tennessee and Michigan factories.

Other factories getting investments include the $100 million being spent at the Delta Township plant near Lansing, Michigan, to make the GMC Acadia crossover SUV. That SUV will be transferred from Spring Hill.

GM's Flint Assembly plant will get $32 million for future production of heavy-duty pickup trucks, while the powertrain plant in Romulus, Michigan, will get $17 million for automation and to increase the output of a 10-speed automatic transmission that goes into pickups and large SUVs.

Also, the Orion Township plant will get $3.5 million and a plant in Brownstown Township, Michigan, will get $750,000, both to help build a test vehicle for the Cruise autonomous vehicle unit.

Over the past 19 months, GM has announced investments of more than $4.5 billion at the three future electric vehicle factories.

Share:
More In Business
Michigan Judge Sentences Walmart Shoplifters to Wash Parking Lot Cars
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
State Department Halts Plan to buy $400M of Armored Tesla Vehicles
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
Goodyear Blimp at 100: ‘Floating Piece of Americana’ Still Thriving
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
Is U.S. Restaurants’ Breakfast Boom Contributing to High Egg Prices?
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
Load More