Analysts say the vehicles built at the Arlington, Texas assembly plant i.e., 2015 Cadillac Escalade, 2015 GMC Yukon, 2015 Chevrolet Suburban and 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe, are responsible for somewhere around $3 billion of General Motors’ annual profit.
It’s easy to deduce how profitable the segment is for GM, and leans credibility to Reuters sources that GM is eyeing a hefty production increase for its large SUVs and pickup trucks. According to its sources, the Arlington plant will be producing an additional 48,000 to 60,000 vehicles for the 2016 model year.
This comes after a plant spokesperson confirmed the addition of overtime shifts being added on Saturdays at Arlington, which began on August 1.
“Industry sales are running ahead of expectations,” said GM spokesman James Cain. “Sales of our full-size SUVs are very strong and we have been working to find creative ways to increase production to meet demand and rebuild our inventories.”
The plant is capable of producing 1,200 vehicles in one day, therefore, adding one day of production and, subsequently doing the math, comes out to around 60,000 additional SUVs, leaving out the chance for unschedules maintenance or supplier issues.
Cain did not confirm the 60,000 vehicle target but, others inside GM who have been briefed on the strategy, say it’s nearly certain.
The news goes hand-in-hand with the $1.4 billion investment announcement for the Arlington plant, which will see a three-year upgrade process to retool for the next generation of large SUVs.
As for GM’s pickup trucks, sources weren’t as familiar about what the General’s plans were to increase production for those vehicles.
Comments
More gas burners! When will GM produce hybrid/EREV versions of these big vehicles?
They already did.
The old hybrid SUVs were more just a marketing gimmick with a sticker on the rocker panel.
It isn’t really worth it right now to make an electric truck. They already weigh 5000+ lbs, adding enough batteries to make it worth while and still be able to haul/tow would be insane. Not to mention CAFE requirements aren’t all that hard for full size SUVs and trucks to hit at the moment.
Actually, you just opened my eyes. For a long time I’ve been racking my brain about why the new 4.3 V6 isn’t in the SUVs yet, but it hit me. As you said “CAFE regulations aren’t that hard to hit.”
So duh on me, why drop the 4.3 with an 8 speed in it when you can already hit regulations with a V8 and a 6 speed.
Do you honestly think it pays to build a hybrid vehicle this size,that costs thousands more than the regular vehicle while saving a few ounces of gas.
I’m not against vehicles that do good on gas but if the costs outweigh the benefits then it makes no sense.
They weren’t exactly a marketing gimmick – they did have about a 20% improvement in the combined MPG, from about 17 to 21, which saves a gallon of fuel every 100 miles. If we compared mileage like all other countries, with gallons per distance vs miles per gallon, the numbers would look much better. The standard Tahoe was about 6 gallons per hundred miles, and the hybrid was less than 5. A standard Camry uses about 3 1/2 gallons per hundred miles, and a Camy Hybrid uses about 2 1/2. Both vehicles show more than a 20% cost savings, but with miles per gallon vs gallons per miles the numbers hide the savings. If all Tahoes were hybrids the country would use significantly less fuel than if all Camry’s were hybrids.
To put it more simply, if you use a lot of fuel, savings are significant. If you don’t use much in the first place, there isn’t as much savings to be gained. 40-50 mpg sounds great, but if you were already getting 30+, you didn’t really save that much in your wallet. That said, we should be putting more emphasis on improving the efficiency bigger vehicles, it just doesn’t sound a glamorous.
The hybrids we did have served more as image builders than profit centers. The fact is most people do not care but work has to continue on them to improve and why not use them to promote a green image to those who do care.
There is nothing wrong with pounding out more large trucks as gas is cheap and make the money while you can as long as you pump the money back into the smaller cars and other products that need improved and will support you in the time of higher prices.
Being flexible and good at both ends of the MPG thing is key here. Before GM only had large trucks now we will have a class leading Bu and Cruze soon and they can clean up on the other end. To be honest GM gets their small cars right they will have a major advantage over the Asian cars who lack large trucks anyone cares for. GM will have both cars and trucks to take care of any market condition.
A dealer gave me a Hybrid Escalade when I had mine in for some overnight service a couple years back.
It was terrible. Gutless. No torque.
As has been mentioned here, it was more a status/image builder for GM to show that it cared, and to tap into those who pretended to have a moral conscious. The Tahoe that actually had “Hybrid” full body length graphics was ghastly.
I’m all for better fuel efficiency wherever it can be achieved, but to go to that extreme with a hybrid in 5000lb machines, where the regular models have significantly more HP, and, for SUV’s, large amounts of tourque, is silly.
Some of us do use our full size SUV’s for more then just having the space to enable carting the kids and the dogs around; we pull a trailer a handful of times a year to go camping, and many friends pull boats. In the Hybrid version, the powertrain had almost 100 less HP, less toruqe, and although rated for 5000lbs (regular version was 7800), I’d be very wary of pulling anything near that,
Top on the premium price, where (I did the math) given how much/little I drive, it would take me about 4+ years to come out ahead in gas savings over the premium MSRP over the regular gas model.
You’re not wrong, just biased. You’re saying the hybrid escalade was gutless, but really you’re just used to yours with the 6.2. If somebody went from a Blazer to the hybrid Escalade, it’d actually be pretty powerful.