General Motors recently announced a long list of investments committed to many of the automaker’s U.S.-based manufacturing plants, including $17 million for the Romulus Propulsion plant in Michigan.
The new investment will go towards “[enhancing] automation and [increasing] capacity of GM’s 10-speed truck transmission, which is used in full-size pickups and other key products, including the all-new Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, GMC Yukon and Yukon XL, and the Cadillac Escalade,” General Motors states in a press release.
This new investment likely means that the much-maligned GM 8-speed transmission (also knows as the 8L90 and 8L45) will soon be phased out. Back in June of 2019, GM Authority posted an editorial stating that the GM 8-speed transmission should go away as soon as possible, while the much-improved 10-speed automatic should take its place. GM has faced lawsuits and harsh criticism over reliability and technical issues related to the 8-speed gearbox, with many of our own readers relating their negative experiences with the transmission on our forums.
This latest investment into the Romulus Propulsion plant in Michigan follows more than $903 million poured into the facility since 2011, including $20 million in 2019 to increase capacity for the 10-speed transmission program. The facility also produces V6 engines, and currently employs around 1,380 employees
The Romulus plant first opened in 1976, and the plant encompasses some 1.4 million square feet.
In addition to the $17 million earmarked for the Romulus facility, General Motors also announced it was investing $32 million into its Flint Assembly plant to support production of the heavy-duty Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra, as well as $100 million for its Lansing Township Assembly facility to support production of the next-gen GMC Acadia, and $2 billion for the Spring Hill Assembly plant in Tennessee to build the new all-electric Cadillac Lyriq crossover, among other investments.
Subscribe to GM Authority for ongoing General Motors news coverage.
Comments
I’m praying the 2022 5.3 Silverado RST and LTZ get the 10 spd. I’m buying one of those trims spring 2022.
Make the 10 speed standard across the board and drop the 4.3 and 5.3 afm.
Um. They should have dropped the problematic 8-speed years ago.
Also drop the 6 speeds. They are reliable transmissions, but shift no faster than the old 4 speeds. The shift time was less problematic with the 4’s because they hardly ever shifted. The 6 shift way more often. I really hate the 1-2 shift on the 14-19 Silverado’s.
GM reliability has been pretty bad this past decade. What happened? Why was Cadillac in last place in the 2018 issue of consumer reports.
8 speeds should have been history 2yrs. ago in the years ahead they will take a hit in resale value and most will go straight to auction
That was the old Detroit Diesel 8.2L plant.