Union workers and engineers are currnetly working alongside one another at General Motors Flint Assembly plant in order to preapre for production of the 2016 Chevrolet Volt’s new 1.5-liter four-cylinder Ecotec engine, MLive reports. Engine production for early 2016 Volts will take place in Mexico, however GM says work will shift to the Flint plant during the second half of this year.
Plant workers and GM engineers are testing out a new program where they collaborate with one another on production changes at a plant as they prepare for production of 1.5-liter engine. This allows workers to become more involved in their place of employment and vouce to company engineers potential issues that could arise engine assembly.
Mexico will currently handle production of the new engine as the extensive overhaul of the Flint plant continues. Operations launch manager at GM Jim Stack described the lengthly process, which is just now starting to come together.
“We’ve had to rearrange the plant. It’s been like a board game, you’ve got to find open spaces,” Stack said. “That’s the one big challenge for us.”
“For this plant, it’s a brand new assembly system,” he added.
GM officials told MLive they hope to celebrate the start of engine production at the Flint plant by the third or fourth quarter of this year. The 2016 Volt, complete with its new engine, improved 50 miles of electric range and fifth rear seat, will go on sale in the second-quarter.
Comments
It would be super if the new engine as diesel.
Also… If GM needs plant space, we have aGM plant that was shut down decades ago. The locals would love to see it reopen.
Diesel in an electric car is a waste of money.
Why add another $3500 worth of price to an electric vehicles backup generator? Per the actual user data it is rarely used and with the cost of diesel vs mpg improvement not much if any fuel cost savings. And diesels weigh more which will detract from the electric miles causing it to but more fuel
Smarter would be to put that $3000 into more battery cells for more electric range.
Sam McEachern can you confirm ?
“The 2016 Volt, complete with its new engine, improved 50 miles of electric range and fifth rear seat, will go on sale in the second-quarter.”
I hope you are right. Every other site says the second half of this year”
John, I am hoping “second quarter” isn’t Sam mis-speaking! It would explain the drastic drop in Volt production since August. There were 9000+ Volts in the US in August, there are around 3300 now. You can pretty much guess what the sales numbers have done in the meantime.
But I doubt GM wants to have thousands of Gen I Volts on the lot when the price and delivery date for the Gen II is announced.