General Motors is extending production at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant. The factory was scheduled to end production June 1 as apart of GM’s larger restructuring that called for idling four other North American factories. However, the automaker is extending production of the Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac CT6, which are built there.
“We are balancing production timing while continuing the availability of Cadillac advanced technology features currently included in the CT6-V, the Blackwing Twin-Turbo V8 and Super Cruise,” General Motors said in the statement announcing the extension.
The Buick LaCrosse and Chevrolet Volt, which are also built at D-Ham, still appear to be getting the scheduled phasing out.
The last few months for Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant employees and others affected by GM’s restructuring have been tumultuous. Employees were blindsided by news GM would idle the Detroit-Hamtramck plant back in November, learning of the announcement through the local and national news media. This happened after union representatives quashed layoff rumors just two weeks before GM’s late-November announcement.
Since then, GM has held firm on its decision to follow through with its plan. The automaker has encouraged the United Auto Workers and Unifor unions to assist employees with securing transfers to other GM factories. The automaker says it has about 2,700 open positions at other factories for the roughly 2,800 workers that’ll be affected by the plant closures. So far, nearly 1,500 have accepted transfers to another factory, with 567 transferring from Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly.
When GM announced it’d close Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly, many believed the CT6 production would end. However, in January, the company said the CT6 would live on with the company already developing the next generation. The Cadillac CT6, which is built at the factory, is important to the automaker because the vehicle features Cadillac’s Super Cruise and will soon feature the twin-turbocharged Blackwing V8 in the CT6-V trim. GM is working to shift CT6 production elsewhere.
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Seriously, this company is run by a morons. They have no idea what they want, except that they want to cut and shrink their way to success. How could they not have planned the shut-down schedule when they announced that D-ham was closing? Do they make product plans on the fly? I feel sorry for their employees and suppliers!
I don’t think that’s a fair assessment, Patrick. They’re obviously juggling all kinds of political, union, and financial considerations. What does seem surprising is that they’d backtrack on discontinuing (or leave any ambiguity about the future of) the CT6. That seems like something that will forever taint the model and cause customers to reconsider buying one.
Of course its not a “fair assessment” this place is full of bozos that probably can’t even hang on to a McJob but yet they know how to run a 100 billion dollar corporation…….
Hamtramck is an interesting story,. They put a second shift on two years ago only to lay it off four months later. They had a new paint shop ready to be built last fall and then they cancelled it and put the plant on the hit list. Keep in mind, all that Barra is doing is appeasing anal-ists on Wall Street. Wall Street tells her to lay off employees and close plants, that’s what she does. Wall Street tells her to spend money on AVs and EVs that is what she does. Hence we have her asinine “Triple Zero” vision, and an all EV future even though that would alienate about 95 percent of GM’s current customers.
This timeline change seems to indicate that continuing production of the CT6 for the US market was a recent decision. (I really hope this also shows there’s still hope that the plant can be saved when it comes time for UAW negotiations.)
It would be interesting to know if the reason for keeping the CT6 was related to delays in adding SuperCruise to the XT5/XT6 or if they decided Cadillac really does need a competitive, full-size sedan.
I have to agree with Patrick. GM today is up, then down, left then right, all over the map. A rudderless mess of a company completely devoid of strong leadership. No matter how good some future GM product might be, I wouldn’t buy it because I’d have no confidence in the company building it or in their ability to stand behind it. The mighty giant has most assuredly fallen.
I’m happy CT6 is staying around (for now) but what moron decided to cancel it in the first place? A Cadillac spokesperson confirmed the product would die so it wasn’t a matter of all of us outside of The Tubes just misunderstanding as Ruess insinuated. GM designed and developed the best Cadillac in 30 years, sold it for two years, then addressed one of its glaring weaknesses with the 4.2 TT Blackwing ICE V-8, then canceled it, then reinstated it, then announced Cadillac is moving to an all electrification future as a ‘last chance” for Cadillac, then there’s news Cadillac is working on a CT6 successor presumably with an ICE. I just can’t keep up with the insanity.
Since the Oshawa plant also builds the Impala, is part of this strategy to poke UNIFOR leader Jerry Dias ?
YES, YES, YES. The Canadian auto workers union head, Jerry Dias is a commie, pure and simple. There should be a vote by the union members left working making the Chev SUV’s in the other Ontario GM factory, to dump his commie butt and put in a sensible union leader. Maybe Jerry Dias can go and work for the other hard core commie running for U.S. president Bernie Sanders.
Yes. GM seems to be allover the map these days, Saying whatever and then having to back away some. Caddyzig is right about politics and positioning but the company as a whole seems to have forgotten what it is…..and that’s not a technology company.
I am proud to see Impala get a stay of execution as well. In my little part of the world, new Impala’s are everywhere and I notice that the driver’s are not old people but rather younger buyers! IN some cases very attractive younger buyers! This new Impala could have been a mega hit if GM had got behind it, promoted it , advertised it, showed it was a class leader if not a class beater. The same goes for the CT6. “Last chance” for Cadillac? Mark obviously never drove a CTS V-Sport or CTS V? Does GM management not know that Escalade is an icon? Cadillac has been very competitive now for awhile, why say something like that about your own child?
This not a popular statement and I respect those who disagree with me but I firmly believe GM needs new leadership. Maybe new leadership that is passionate about cars and trucks even.
We need the new impala and the impala ss RWD.
What does this mean for the Impala? Any chances of a resurrection like the CT6?
I’m looking between the lines, note the Impala stays while the Buick and Volt dies plus the head-of-Chevy mentioned Chevy will have a sedan from small to full-sized. GM is up to something..
Believe me, they are up to something.
First off is there anyone here with a crystal ball that can predict markets 100% 5 to 10 plus years from now? I thought not.
We do know growth is slowing and will continue to slow globally. Getting the right product in place is very important and the CUV lines are shown as the way forward by everyone now.
The lowering of production cost are key as you have to make more per unit sold per as volumes will not increase.
Finally inefficiency needs to be removed as in under capacity plants. Ford is shutting a plant in a South America that had so many employees and dropping production that they were getting 11 cars per employee. Yes it really got that bad. Hence Ford stock below $10.
Anyway GM is making moves for the short term and long term. To us on the outside it may not always make sense but then again we do not know all their plans and intimate details.
What makes little sense now will make sense 5 years from now.
This is more a chess match vs checkers. MFGs have to plan 3 and 4 moves in advance and until we know all the moves it may be puzzling.
Also you you need to be prepared to make changes on the fly as outside factors can always change things.
If all this was as easy as some think then why are you on the web running the company?
Keep in mind I also never touched on the political issues, labor issues, unplanned global issues and Wall Street issues that can influence change at anytime.
By doing this GM gets a little positive PR, builds a few more of the Impala, which they can make a few bucks on and it buys some time to decide the fate of the CT6 in NA? I expect that “IF” the CT6 stays available long term here, they will come from China. If GM intended to move the CT6 to another assembly plant here it would already be known/ announced and moving in that direction?
Just wondering here; what’s the fate of CT6? Alex?
It was dying, then Ruess said, no, they didn’t mean it when they said they were killing it and they were looking at other production options to keep it around. I think that was interpreted here as keeping the car in the lineup long term but could it be that they only meant for six more months? Could it be that Ruess realized CT6 with the Blackwing would be doomed in the marketplace with the execution orders hanging over it. Thus, they had to retract that and be cagey about the product’s future.
The GM Press Release reads as follows:
“DETROIT — GM notified employees, suppliers and dealers today that the completion of Impala and CT6 production at Detroit/Hamtramck will extend into January 2020. We are balancing production timing while continuing the availability of Cadillac advanced technology features currently included in the CT6-V, the Blackwing Twin-Turbo V-8 and Super Cruise. The completion of production for these vehicles had been previously scheduled to occur in June.”
The key sentence is the last in which they state that the end of production of these vehicles (the CT6) was scheduled for June. The implication in the press release is that production will still end, only now six months later. However, the first sentence of the release adds a qualifier, stating that “the completion of Impala and CT6 production AT Detroit/Hamtramck will extend into January”.
Most current media reporting is presenting this as a six month reprieve for the two big GM sedans after which CT6 and Impala still die, which is obviously not the thinking around here. I think we are imagining CT6 moves to LGR and stays in the lineup for years to come and even has a successor. It’s not clear to me though whether that’s that actual plan or not.
Yeah, the communication is a bit confused, with GM communications saying one thing but executives (Reuss and Carlisle) saying something totally different. The key there is to add “Detroit-Hamtramck” to that statement. In other words, CT6 and Impala production has been extended by six months at DHAM. Similarly, “the completion of production for these vehicles had been previously scheduled to occur in June” at DHAM. It’s a strange statement overall.
In this particular case, I would trust more of what we heard from Reuss and Carlisle a few weeks ago.
From what I know thus far, LGR is the front-runner in getting CT6 but there are major capacity issues that are being worked on as we speak. If LGR doesn’t get it, CT6 will continue being made available in North America at another facility.
The folks at GM seriously need to get their act together. They don’t seem to know how to make class leading products and in some cases even competitive products. Then there is the marketing side to make thing even worse. The don’t advertise or promote them properly.They send misleading or contradicting information about the future of said products.
This is no way to maintain let alone grow your customer base. They sit around and complain about their products not selling. They need to take a look at themselves for someone to blame for that. I am no Engineer or business executive but even I and many many more potential customers can see at least a big part of their problem. I know there are more contributing factors for the lack of sales success of many of these vehicles but fixing at least some if not all of the thing I mentioned will go a long way in improving sales.
I think if some of you dig deeper than personal feelings you will find GM is using this plant and Impala to fulfill needs in working with union agreements.
Of all the product killed the Impala and CT6 are the most profitable. They can let them linger the longest while negotiating with the UAW.
There is a lot of work to do yet in cutting over capacity but they will get there.
The cuts are coming elsewhere and some st other automakers can be even more significant than any GM did.
I am waiting for Ford to cut their car lines. That one is really going to be ugly.
the car business is shrinking because they sold 17 milli0n in 2018 and the sold 17 milli0n 20 years ago but the population of the USA has grown 15 % in that time frame. that means that they should have sold at least 24 million. maybe the problem is that increase in population are just poor people that sneaked in over the border that can not afford a car.
Sales are flat because vehicles in recent years last far longer than the junk they used make. The average age of vehicles has never been so high. When GM, Ford, and Chrysler had no real competition but each other’s mediocrity, I guess making junk kept the plants humming. Consumers won’t tolerate junk now though.
You know how many “swapped” engines Civics, Camry, Altimas, etc.. I’ve seen?, or 3-400k+ mi GM B-body, Ford Panther platform that’s still on the road?. Yes, overall some Japanese (mainly Honda/Toyota) make quality but it’s a myth that US couldn’t make cars until the forginers showed up, Japan overall makes a more practical car that doesn’t use a big engine. It doesn’t help that Detroit is chasing truck profit again and mostly neglecting cars, at least they’re on better footing this time.