General Motors will invest $55 million in its Fort Wayne Assembly plant in Indiana to support the continued production of the Chevy Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 pickup trucks.
The Detroit News secured an internal memo sent out this week by the plant’s executive director, Gary Duff, which indicated the investment will go towards new tooling and equipment at the 4.6 million-square-foot facility.
“This investment into state-of-the-art equipment will further enhance manufacturing as a competitive advantage for GM and provide the tools and technology for our workforce to continue to deliver high quality vehicles to our customers,” Duff said in the memo. “This investment supports the company’s growth strategy of truck and SUV dominance.”
GM announced earlier this year that it would invest $1.3 billion CAD in its Oshawa Assembly plant in Ontario in order to begin production of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra at the Canadian site. Unlike Fort Wayne Assembly, which only builds the light duty variants of the Silverado and Sierra, the Oshawa plant will build both light and heavy duty trucks. GM currently builds heavy-duty trucks at the Flint Assembly plant in Michigan, which will remain operational after light and heavy duty truck production starts at Oshawa in early 2022.
Between the upgrades at Fort Wayne Assembly and the start of truck production at Oshawa Assembly, GM is poised to significantly boost its full-size truck output in the coming years. At the time of the Oshawa announcement, GM noted that pickups are its “largest and most important market segment in Canada and across the continent,” and said the profit-heavy vehicles will” also help GM fund our transition to the electric, autonomous and highly connected future we see ahead.”
GM is currently developing the mid-cycle enhancement versions of its two full-size pickups, which will introduce various styling and technology updates to help them compete with rival offerings, from Ford and Ram. The MCE versions of the trucks are expected to be introduced either halfway through the 2022 model year or for 2023.
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Comments
Another year of that shi$$y interior, what a bummer.
And that fugly front end.
Apparently those that complain about the interior have not noticed that the Ford interior doesn’t wear very well under heavier use and are a bear to clean up- the GM interiors seem to hold up better and are much easier to clean and keep clean
Agree tony. What everyone looks at is the Ford and ram limited trims, you know only the one that lawyers and these auto journalists drive and don’t recognize that most trucks are sold in the mid to lower trims, you know the one where Ford and ram come in gray plastic. That’s where GM’s trims really shine is in the mass market price level.
New Ram Owner: why do you get on a GM site and rant about the looks? What a tool. Every time I pass a Ram on the road and see its rusted out fenders (usually all four), and then look at that fugly nose, I wonder what you folks see that is so much better…
I would take the current interior/ exterior design of the current truck line if only they would get their powertrain issues sorted out. NO excuses for transmissions only lasting 100k miles or brand new engines eating lifters. Bulletproof should be the goal, not all the fluff they put in to try to justify 40-80k sticker prices. I mean, 42,000 for a regular cab, 4wd, v-8, 1/2 ton work truck ? I would have to plow snow 11 months out of the year to recoup that !
The plant is shutdown anyway. Dump more money into a dead horse.
If the new interior upgrade includes the infotainment screen looking like a lap top stuck in the middle of the dashboard like many new designs. Please count me out . By the way, I’m still waiting on a sold Denali GMC truck that has been sitting in Mexico since March/ April. I’m Okay with the 2021 Denali interior
Can’t even keep the doors open..but have $$ to invest.
The workers always have to pay for corporate greed!