Production of the Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain at the GM San Luis Potosí Assembly plant in Mexico has been pushed back until September 6th, GM Authority can confirm.
The San Luis Potosí plant has been down since July 19th due to the semiconductor chip shortage and was originally scheduled to resume production on Monday, August 2nd. GM then announced this week that production at the plant had been pushed back to August 23rd.
Now, however, GM has once again pushed back the production restart date at San Luis Potosí, with the production line at the plant set to remain idle until September 6th. The constant shuffling of the production restart date is likely due to the fluid nature of the global chip shortage, which changes day-to-day.
GM is currently prioritizing its full-size truck and SUV models amid the chip shortage, which have much stronger profit margins than small crossovers like the Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain. This strategy has allowed GM to keep its full-size truck and SUV plants open throughout the chip shortage and protect its bottom line.
The GM Fairfax Assembly plant, which produces both the Chevy Malibu and Cadillac XT4 crossover, has so far taken the brunt of the effects of the chip shortage. The plant produces two relatively low-volume vehicles and has thus remained offline since February of this year. Production of the Cadillac XT4 at the plant is set to restart on September 20th, although GM has yet to provide an estimated restart date for the Malibu.
Intel, which is the largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips in the U.S., expects the shortage to persist until 2022 and has said it will “take a couple of years,” to be completely resolved. As a result, temporary plant shutdowns such as these may continue at GM throughout 2021 and into next year.
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Comments
Maybe with the semi conductor delay with the small gm s u v might make gm rethink of installing the 2.0 l engine back in the equinox/terrain and making it worth to purchase once again !
Likely the same amount of chips would go into that so this wouldn’t solve the current problem. It also takes time to make any engine/parts switch overs which again wouldn’t solve the current problem.
He just wanted to be able to type the phrase “lower case g m” for the 47,000th time.
Oh sorry I will correct it for you GM !!!
Lol…I’m still getting used to ‘gm’…it will be even harder when our plant switches over to Brightdrop. Will they shorten that to BD or bd I wonder…hahaha
I believe that start up date in sept will further be pushed back as we get closer to sept then it will be further into the later part of the year and probably beginning of 2022 wanting to order a 2022 Terrain denali dealers telling me not taking any order on Denali at this time !
It gives you a chance to shop around as well. Buying a Terrain Denali with a 1.5L engine doesn’t seem like the best value, and with virtually no discounts these days the value proposition is even worse. Dealers don’t want to enter orders for lower profit vehicles that aren’t being built. They will gladly let you order the higher profit vehicles still being manufactured.
Nothing says Denali like a pipsqueak 1.5 turbo that will blow up before 100,000 miles.
Got that right !!! Remember professional grade !!!
Totally agree with your comment being only 1 engine option in a terrain and not offering more options at least on the new refresh Terrain Denali and all this microchip issues probably best looking at some other manufacturers but that being said I’m sure they also have microchip issues all which is affecting every manufacturers just have to wait and see I guess
This whole issue with the 1.5 engine being the only one has me reaching the conclusion that this series of vehicles is winding down and will be replaced by something new to fill the same segment.
Knowing General Motors, they will – rather than retaining two well-known model names – come up with yet still another further different model name for each. This accomplishes two things: no one will known what a Chevrolet NewName or a GMC SomethingDifferentSameSegment is, and, because the names Equinox and Terrain will be orphaned, damage resale for present owners.
Meantime, how long have the names RAV 4, CR-V, and Santa Fe been around?
I have helped build the Equinox for 16 years in Canada. While I have no official insight it feels like what was once the ‘star’ SUV is being morphed to EV in the next few model years. ’22 has a face lift and Mexico is retooling for EV. It’s fed my family and provided us a decent life, it’s very hard to see it leave us, and Canada 🙁
I wish GM would indicate on orders where multiple plants produce the same vehicles like Equinox Canada and Mexico, Silverado Indiana, and Mexico, something that would let the dealer know early on which plant would be producing the vehicle. It would help tremendously with planning and forecasting to know when the vehicle would hit the lot. Being in the Detroit Market a Silverado out of Mexico takes about 3 weeks from the time it ships, until it arrives on the lot. The Silverado’s coming out of Ft Wayne, IN are typically here within 2 to 5 days. Currently, we can’t tell where the vehicle was produced until we see the VIN. I suppose in normal times we never really had to pay attention that close as we always had about 100 Silverado’s in stock and 200-250 Equinox. There I am off the soap box. Easy fix GM make it happen. While you are at it get some troops out to the old Palace of Auburn Hills site and fix the 4000 Traverse you built shy, and parked there and get them fixed and to your dealers. I thought GM was using this down tome from production to get the Build Shy/ MP vehicles up fitted, tested and shipped to their waiting dealers!
Craziest thing I have ever seen, is when GM decided to build the Bolt EUV to compete with the Bolt EV. There is only a 6 inch difference between the vehicles. Ultimately, the Bolt EV will go away I am sure, and likely be replaced with a mid-size SUV EV which is where the volume will be. Neither of the Two Chevrolet EV’s are really suited for a family, and GM’s decision to not give the Bolt, and Bolt EUV the new Ultimum Battery System was a mistake. I have a 2020 Bolt and love the vehicle except I would love it a lot more if it had a 300-350 mile range and would charge at up to 200KW instead of the 50KW it is limited to at Level 3 Charging Stations. Every other new GM EV will be Ultimum, and have longer range and much faster charging than the Bolt and Bolt EUV. I have put 17,000 miles on my Bolt since I leased it 11 months ago. Great car but disappointed in some of GM’s decisions on the EV’s.