General Motors will make an announcement regarding future production allocation at its Factory Zero plant in suburban Detroit this week.
In a statement released Monday, the automaker revealed its president, Mark Reuss, would be on hand at the Factory Zero plant on Tuesday, April 6th at 12 p.m. ET to make an important product-related announcement. The announcement will be live-streamed via GM’s dedicated online media portal and no in-person media will be invited due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Factory Zero is GM’s new dedicated electric vehicle production facility. The plant, formerly called Detroit-Hamtramck, is currently undergoing a $2.2 billion transformation – the largest investment GM has ever made into a single production facility. Phil Kienle, GM vice president of North America Manufacturing and Labor Relations, previously said Factory Zero would be “GM’s flagship assembly plant in our journey to an all-electric future,” and will be a key part of its business going forward.
Mark Reuss in 2020
GM has already confirmed three products for Factory Zero. The GMC Hummer EV pickup truck and closely related GMC Hummer EV SUV will both be produced at the Michigan facility, along with the Cruise Origin robotaxi. All three of these vehicles will use GM Ultium lithium-ion batteries and Ultium Drive electric motors.
“This manufacturing plant will be the epitome of GM’s vision by sustainably manufacturing electric and shared autonomous vehicles that can help reduce crashes, emissions and congestion,” Dane Parker, GM chief sustainability officer, said in a statement released earlier this year.
Factory Zero places an emphasis on sustainability and will use treated stormwater in its cooling towers and fire suppression system. The site of the plant will also include a protected 16.5-acre wildlife habitat recognized by the Wildlife Habitat Council, which is home to a variety of animals including monarch butterflies, foxes and wild turkeys.
GM expects Factory Zero to employ around 2,200 workers once it’s up and running at full capacity. The GMC Hummer EV pickup is expected to be the first vehicle to be built there, with the First Edition trim level set to begin rolling off the assembly line later this year.
GM Authority will have complete details on the Factory Zero announcement following tomorrow’s press conference at noon.
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Comments
The Chevy truck?
It doesn’t excite me any but it might be better than the current 2.7L four cylinder provider you can find a charging station that works as quick as pumping 20 gallons of gasoline.
They may talk of trees and water but this plant represent something radically new.
This will be a plant that can build a number of different vehicles at once. But it will do it with a much shorter line and with less steps and people on the line.
Production will be shorter and much more efficient. This will be the blue print to future production facilities.
Lol. This shop always built multiple car lines. They always built at least 4 car lines here since it was built in 85
Not as flexible as it will become. They will surpass the basics of today.
Yes, no more moving assembly line with workers chasing the cars down the line, or line stopping because 1 station falls behind. I am very interested to see how this new approach works out, it seems like it should work well, make for happier workers, and better quality.
There will still be moving assembly lines. And the line will still stop if people fall behind on their jobs. You may not be chasing a chain but a “skillet line” when the jobs are on their own platforms, still move along. It is still a. Moving assembly line.
C8.R, that’s not new at all! Every automaker builds multiple cars on the same line. You go to any factory and you’ll see 3 different cars one right after the other. Toyota Georgetown is one of the more peculiar ones where they designed the stamping tools to be modular. If they wanted they could do a Camry, Tacoma then a rav 4 before returning to a Camry as the die machine continuously varies the stamp. Obviously they don’t do that to confuse the line workers. Also, this EV line they are showing is less diverse parts wise than the ft Wayne Indiana truck plant. At least those all come in different power trains and body configurations. Hopefully they make money off the hummer, cause I don’t see it happening with the Silverado-E.
I also don’t see anything special in 2.2B investment into the plant overhaul. Last startup of a plant in America was decades ago, and inflation has dramatically increased. That was back when 15k for a truck was expensive. Last year GM spent 200m to just increase production of the 10 speed tranny, at a current plant. They must not expect to sell these in the thousands.
The last shop GM built from the ground up was Delta, where the Traverse and Enclave are built. 2006 I believe.
Here’s what to expect as far as product announcements go. They’ll announce that at least these 3 additional vehicles will be produced at Factory ZERO:
– Chevrolet electric pickup
– GMC electric pickup
– Cadillac full-size, BOF electric SUV
These will be in addition to the Hummer EV pickup, Hummer EV SUV and Cruise Origin. All except the Origin use the BT1 electric body-on-frame platform.
I don’t know if they’ll tease the vehicles yet…we’ll have to wait and see.
BT1 vehicles are not traditional BOF, just FYI They are integrated structural chassis, which is more like a reinforced unibody as the complete structure is welded in place in the body shop, and the entire structure and body go through paint as one. Once out of paint, the front and rear clip with drive units are bolted in, and the battery pack bolted into the center to add even more stiffness. This is far simpler to assemble and eliminates the separate frame line in the factory, and the marriage station at the start of final assembly. It is also substantially stiffer than a traditional BOF truck in bending moments. Hummer is likely to be one of the stiffest truck chassis GM has ever produced. GM put out a video showing the naked Hummer body structure, and how the front and rear sub assemblies are installed several months ago.
@Donavan,
You are correct, sir. It’s not a traditional BOF unit, but the chassis structure that incorporates the battery unit is best described as the “frame,” where the actual cab and bed structure is the “body.” However, yes, once in the body shop the two are welded as one. This is the reason why GMC designed the C pillar sails into the Hummer EV pickup, to increase the rigidity the were after with the chassis design to allow for the Infinity Roof and open air design.
The best way to actually describe it is a hybrid between a unibody and BOF structure…but being old-school, I still tend to use BOF out of habit lol.
Yes, Kinda… The structure that goes up through the A, B, C pillars are stamped from the same pieces that run horizontally along the battery pack, these vertical structures are not just “welded onto a horizontal frame”. This structure has far more in common with unibody than it does with Body On Frame. It is in essence a unibody structure. It is a very efficient, cheaper to manufacture, lightweight, and strong design relative to a traditional BOF vehicle, but there are limits to the length that can be built. The sails on the Hummer Ev are to brace the roof structure, so that the tops can be removed, it is a clever, and good design. Old school or not, Body on Frame means a body mounted on a separate frame (usually with bolts), and unibody means integrated body and structure all welded together as one piece.
G8 – it’s seems like the roll out of the Hummer is a bit slow once production is started. Especially since production of EVs is supposed to be quicker and easier. As an example, Hummer SUT production is going to take more than a year to start production on all models. Is battery production constrained to start? Or will they just be bringing on all these models in 2022/2023? What’s production capacity at this plant once fully running?
Sorry, not to butt in as your question was directed to someone else. Yes, GM is battery constrained for now, and Hummer production will start slow. Hummer is intended to be a halo vehicle for GMC the same way Corvette is for Chevrolet, therefore high production is not planned. I think GM would be satisfied to sell 15K Hummer SUT, and 15K SUV per year when production is in full operation. But remember there are also Chevy, GMC, Cruise, and Cadillac products coming from Factory Zero as well, those will be the volume products. I think Factory Zero is being set up for total production of around 100K per shift annually. Just a guess, but I think 250K would be the upper bound of the factory running balls to the walls, but my gosh, that would take a lot of batteries.
Thanks Donovan. Not a problem that you provided commentary. Was looking for some direct knowledge to understand what’s all happening and why we’re seeing what I think of as low numbers for Hummer production. In reality, in the next 5 years, such volumes are probably sufficient to meet demand.
Overall sounds like there are a lot of reveals ahead in the next 1-2 years.
@GMC Fan,
Donavan answered your questions as well as I could, so I’d just echo him.
The main reasons why production is coming on slow are twofold: the wait for mass-produced batteries, and the fact that the Hummer program was just recently conceived in April 2019, and real R&D didn’t begin until late that year/early 2020. For the vehicles to be rolled out in late 2021, 2022, 2023, etc. is actually extremely quick for that start date.
The BT1 program is now so far along that GM recently moved the Chevy electric pickup production forward by 11 months, and the GMC electric pickup production up by 40 (!) months.
Factory ZERO will be humming along by late 2022 with a number of vehicles. You’ll hear all about that today.
I do not have direct GM internal knowledge, But do know people in the tooling industry, and they usually know what is going on, whether they tool the factory or one of the other tooling shops. Tool making is a small industry, everybody knows what the others are doing.
G8Burnout:
Will the Cadillac Lyriq be built there as well?
No the Lyriq will be built in Spring Hill Tennessee.
@Megeebee,
The Lyriq will be built in Spring Hill, Tennessee, along with a number of Honda/Acura EV crossovers.
Great, less jobs and more free government money for gm.
They should call it “factory zero demand” or “factory zero sales” or “factory zero US jobs”
Then let’s get rid of all the tech that eliminated manual labor and return to wild west or better stone age, this is why democracy is a terrible system, this minds decide on our lives and future.
GM’s flexible, modular approach to EV development will drive significant economies of scale and create new revenue opportunities, including:
Continuous Improvement in Battery Costs: GM’s joint venture with LG Chem will drive battery cell costs below $100/kWh. The cells use a proprietary low cobalt chemistry and ongoing technological and manufacturing breakthroughs will drive costs even lower.
Flexibility: GM’s all-new global platform is flexible enough to build a wide range of trucks, SUVs, crossovers, cars and commercial vehicles with outstanding design, performance, packaging, range and affordability.
Capital Efficiency: GM can spend less capital to scale its EV business because it is able to leverage existing property, including land, buildings, tools and production equipment such as body shops and paint shops.
Complexity Reduction: The vehicle and propulsion systems were designed together to minimize complexity and part counts beyond today’s EVs, which are less complex than conventional vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. For example, GM plans 19 different battery and drive unit configurations initially, compared with 550 internal combustion powertrain combinations available today.
Rising Customer Acceptance: Third-party forecasters expect U.S. EV volumes to more than double from 2025 to 2030 to about 3 million units on average. GM believes volumes could be materially higher as more EVs are launched in popular segments, charging networks grow and the total cost of ownership to consumers continues to fall.
New Sources of Revenue: By vertically integrating the manufacture of battery cells, the company can reach beyond its own fleet and license technology to others.
You forgot massive job cuts in the hourly ranks.
So we’re not supposed to develop and grow and figure out how to improve our lives just to save an inefficient position?
It’s unfortunate but a great opportunity for those individuals to learn more and take on new challenges.
And drive us I to the arms of Communists in China for all out battery material needs, eh?
Like how to pay the bills lol
I was hoping to read in the article or comments that GM is installing solar/wind power generation to power the plant, making its $2B investment more sustainable over the long run. As a former MI resident, I know about the cloudy, stormy days, but when it’s stormy, a small wind turbine farm would use the winds off the lakes.
Other companies that are investing in new or revamped production facilities are installing renewable energy technology to supplement/power the factory that’s producing vehicles to be more sustainable for humans on the planet. Please tell me GM is doing this too!
Those of you who feel compelled to post negative comments about jobs, the economy, and wave your America First flag: respectfully, use Google searches to learn some basic economics. Home finances (microeconomics) isn’t the same thing as federal fiscal policy and the strategic decisions GM makes. That’s macroeconomics. Resist embarrassing yourself. Even fully automated production plants generate all kinds of human jobs at operational levels below managerial. The current president and his administration know this, they understand the vocational training needs, and are trying to use our (taxpayer) money to pay for it! Keep the unions strong and at the end of the day (5-10 years), the factory jobs so coveted in the 1960s-70s will be abundant. That’s what these investments in infrastructure are all about.
I actually work for the company at the shop level and have seen the job loss first hand. These new “green” jobs do not pay near as much as the jobs they will replace.
Your anecdotal observation doesn’t match the statistical evidence. Job comparisons within unions show marked improvement, but no less than parity. Naturally, non-union companies will almost always pay less than their unionized counterparts. Usually, when workers regain their jobs, they join companies who are sub-contractors for the companies they left. Lower pay.
The green economy is here, and the best thing for US is to train and compete in order to maintain our #1 economic ranking. Since we have just a third of China’s population, we have to be smarter and play big, and not screw up the planet’s environment more than already. We get to watch this transition period for the next 15 years, and prepare our kids accordingly. Sitting on our asses, doing nothing to solve the problems we know we have is just plain dumb. As adults, we have the responsibility to our kids/grandchildren/great-etc. If there’s will, there’s a way.
P.S. Very happy driving my first EV, and proud it’s a USA-built Chevrolet.
Facts don’t care about your feelings.
Thank goodness GM *does* care about customer feelings for their products, and also cares about how they conduct business in our communities and on our planet.