When Chevrolet announced the new 2019 Silverado Medium Duty last week, it didn’t provide information about where the new vehicles will be manufactured. But GM Authority has confirmed with Chevrolet officials that the beastly new trucks will be made at Navistar’s Springfield Assembly Plant in Ohio.
Notably, the truck, which is comprised of the 2019 Silverado 4500HD, Silverado 5500HD and Silverado 6500HD in either regular (single) Cab or Crew Cab configurations, was destined for production by Navistar since GM and Navistar embarked on the Medium Duty truck program in October 2015, resulting in the jointly-developed Silverado Medium Duty family. Navistar will also sell a version of the trucks under the International Trucks brand.
Some units of the Chevrolet Express Cutaway (pictured) and GMC Savana cutaway are also produced by Navistar at the same Springfield Assembly Plant
Navistar’s Springfield Assembly Plant is located in Springfield, Ohio – about 50 miles west of Columbus. It produces International brand ProStar+, WorkStar, DuraStar, TerraStar and TranStar trucks. As of the first half of 2017, the plant also produces cutaway versions of GM’s commercial vans – the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana. The move allows GM to expand availability and associated sales volumes of the vehicles.
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Will the cabs be made in a GM factory and sent to Ohio for assembly?
GM’s Fort Wayne truck plant is only about 130 miles away, that may be the source of the cabs.
BTW- there are already rumors GM and Navistar are working together on an even larger truck.
That would be great, we will probably see a class 7 and 8 Silverado or Kodiak in the near future.
Have not heard much more on that lately, but no one is denying it. Also hearing there will be more options and configurations of the Silverado 4500/5500/6500 coming in 2020.
There’s a rumor from GM management that the crew cab will be the only unit in production until 2020. Alex, can you confirm or deny this?
I’d be glad to look into this.
To make sure I understand, is the rumor that there won’t be a single/regular cab until 2020… or that there won’t a single/regular cab after 2020?
They are supposedly not producing the regular cab until late 2019 or early 2020. All that will be available for about a year (beginning late 2018) would be the crew cab.
Got it. Looking into it now. Will reply as soon as I learn something.
Update 1: it’s been about 16 hours since I reached out to GM for comment on this… have yet to hear back.
Understood. They may not want it to be public as it may tarnish their momentum of the reveal. I was at the NTEA event and this was the talk amongst dealers and GM personnel.
We’ve been told that HD double cabs, which ended production on 2/22 could be up to 15 months before we see more inventory. Express vans are basically done for the model year as all dealer allocation has been cut off.
This is going to be a very lean summer and fall for the Fleet market.
JP – got an answer.
Chevy tells me that the rumor stating that Regular Cab models will be introduced a year after the Crew Cab models is not true.
Followed up with a dealer source and got the following: Crew and Regular Cabs go into production at the same time. First orders in May, on the ground in June.
The moved the cutaway vans to allow more production of Colorado/Canyon models which are built alongside the vans.
Though this is widely reported as fact, it is not accurate.
I spoke with the plant manager at Wentzville about this, and he assured me that GM did not “move” production of the Express and Savana cutaway out of the facility.
Instead, Navistar producing the cutaways at its Springfield plant actually expanded the supply of the vans. Wentzville continues to produce the cutaways as well. The move did not result in greater availability (supply) of the Colorado and Canyon.
A quote from a GM VP of Mfg seems to disagree. They may be building the cutaways at both locations, but part of the reason for the Navistar cutaway deal was increased midsize truck production:
“Navistar International Corp. will build cutaway vans for General Motors Co. beginning next year, helping free up additional capacity for midsize truck production at the automaker’s Wentzville Assembly Plant in Missouri.”
“This partnership will provide our Wentzville, Missouri, assembly plant more flexibility to keep up with continued demand for mid-size trucks and full size vans,” said Cathy Clegg, GM North America vice president of manufacturing and labor relations, in a statement.”
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/general-motors/2016/06/10/gm-partners-navistar-finish-cutaway-vans/85716346/
http://media.navistar.com/index.php?s=43&item=788
Ok, challenge accepted 🙂
1. The quotes you provide actually confirm my point! Check out the part in bold.
“This partnership will provide our Wentzville, Missouri, assembly plant more flexibility to keep up with continued demand for mid-size trucks and full size vans,” said Cathy Clegg, GM North America vice president of manufacturing and labor relations, in a statement.”
2. I wouldn’t read too much into comments of Ms. Clegg, someone who is responsible for 55 facilities… as this level of position often has a very broad (read: detail-less) understanding of what’s going on in their own department(s).
By contrast, the people at Wentzville – those who actually do the work on a daily basis – know exactly what’s going on at their plant… and according to them, the vans are not seeing reduced capacity at the facility as a result of Navistar making the Express/Savana cutaways.
3. If my word ins’t enough, I welcome you to look at actual production and sales data for the vehicles in question. I can’t supply you with production data at this time, but I can give you sales figures.
To set the time line for our conversation, Navistar started making the Express and Savana cutaways at Springfield in “the first half of 2017. Using your theory that the addition of the Express and Savana cutaways to Navistar was made to increase Colorado and Canyon capacity, it would be safe to conclude that Wentzville would start pumping out more Colorados and Canyons after the first half of 2017 now that it would have the added capacity for the increased midsize truck mix. But that is exactly what did not take place.
Here are the life-time sales figures for the Colorado and Canyon:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/gm/general-motors-sales-numbers/chevrolet-colorado-gmc-canyon-sales-numbers/
Notice that June-December 2017, sales of the vehicles is roughly the same as it is during the same time period in 2016. In fact, the Colorado and Canyon combined sold less in 2017 than they did in 2016 (by roughly a thousand units).
Now let’s look at Express and Savana sales:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/gm/general-motors-sales-numbers/chevrolet-express-gmc-savana-sales-numbers/
Sales of the two vans increased substantially during the second half of 2017, especially during the June – September timeframe, enabling combined sales to increase by 10,000 units in 2017 over 2016.
All that confirms the notion, which was stated to us by the management of the GM Wentzville plant, that the mix of vans to midsize trucks at the plant hasn’t actually changed after Navistar began producing cutaway versions of GM’s vans at Springfield. This would make sense, as GM likely makes more on the vans (for obvious reasons) than it does on the midsize trucks (which are priced several grand too high for the market when compared to the competition, and are squeezed by GM’s 1500-level full-size trucks).
That’s all I’ve got!
Gm just needs to buyout Navistar, have a profitable truck division with spare capacity is a win
Alex, Can you find out if the 4500/5500’s will be set up for a Hot shot style trucking, Pulling a 40′ flatbed with 15000-20000lbs on the trailer and able to move down the highway at freeway speeds?
everything I have found indicates these trucks are being designed as city work trucks.
Does anyone know what the future of this joint venture between GM and Navistar is for the medium duty trucks and the cut a way vans? It will be interesting since Traton now owns Navistar.
I have heard that both GM and Navistar consider the joint venture a success, and there are rumors that they will collaborate on more commercial vehicles. Navistar has joined Traton, VW’s commercial truck subsidy, but VW is in the process of spinning Traton off to a large degree. Hard to say what if any influence VW will have on the joint venture, VW seems more interested in Ford’s light duty commercial vehicles like the Ranger and Transit.