Last year, amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, General Motors transformed its electronics components plant in Kokomo, Indiana into a ventilator production facility as part of a contract with Ventec. Now the automaker is using the Kokomo facility for yet another side project, this time storing built-shy Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks in the 2.6 million square foot plant’s sprawling parking lot.
GM Kokomo plant
According to Inside Indiana Business, GM is currently stockpiling “hundreds” of partially completed pickup trucks at the Kokomo plant. The trucks are being shipped from the nearby Fort Wayne Assembly plant and are awaiting microchips and other electronic components before they can be shipped to dealers. This strategy, referred to by GM as “build shy”, allows the automaker to keep its truck plants up and running even if it doesn’t have all the chips it needs to finish the vehicles. Full-size pickups like the Chevy Silverado represent the automaker’s most profitable and best-selling products.
GM has fenced off an area of the Kokomo parking lot capable of housing between 5,000 and 7,000 built-shy pickups. The automaker is also stockpiling partially-finished vehicles at countless other parking lots across the country, including at Michigan State University and various lots situated across central Texas. Stored vehicles have also been spotted at GM plants and facilities in Mexico, Missouri and Illinois.
Ironically, the Kokomo Plant was formerly a semiconductor manufacturing facility. GM stopped producing chips there in 2017, saying the “technical capabilities of the current equipment set does not allow the business to compete at a global level.” The automaker also said at the time that it was “cost prohibitive to invest in new equipment to produce semiconductors in GM Kokomo due to the available capacity and capability of existing suppliers to meet demand for semiconductors.” The chip suppliers referenced in this statement, many of which are located overseas, are now the ones scrambling to fulfill demand and warning OEMs the shortage may not let up until well into 2023.
A former GM Kokomo employee, Denise Dodd, told Inside Indiana Business the electronics manufacturing equipment at Kokomo has long since been removed.
“I would like to see them bring back chip manufacturing, but all of the equipment has been removed and to work under a clean room environment, everything would have to be replaced,” Dodd said.
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Comments
Imagine if GM would have left the plant running and upgraded it. They would be in such a good position. To bad no one really saw this coming. Hopefully this makes US companies realize the US needs to stop relying on the rest of the world.
🔶 Most of the comments below credited to me are not mine. My apologies to anyone that was offended.
Still not too late for GM or anyone to start producing chips again in the US. Shortage not only hurting car manufacturers but hundreds or thousands of dealerships worldwide.
Wow Dan, you figured out the answer, with limited information, no experience and possibly little intelligence. If you had any clue on the lead time and investment required for chip manufacturing you would realize how impossible your suggestion to “just start producing chips” is. Maybe you and all the thoughtless followers that gave you a thumbs up, figure nobody has thought of “just making more chips” yet. I don’t blame you for being incompetent enough to blurt out something so basic, but all the lemmings that agreed with you make me understand why this country is sliding backward.
No need to be such an arrogant asshole .
Shut your mouth
I visited the storage areas near Fort Wayne last week. Why is the entry gate marked entry prohibited by the Defense Logistics Agency? That brings up a new set of questions.
its all about greed by CEOs
I own 4 chevy/gmc vehicles . It’s about time they stop this penny pinching shi! And produce them in America .If this plant made ventilators the it’s clean enougj to build chips
Someone should tell GM that when they get enough chips to move these trucks, most buyers like me have already moved on to Ford or RAM. The GM products were marginal to begin with and the the competition has already surpassed them in quality, looks, tech, interiors and hauling. I’ve owned 5 Chevy and GMC 1500/2500 series and I just moved on to a RAM 1500 because it’s just a better truck. Sorry GM, you lost me.
Most buyers? Both are having stocking troubles too and GM’s sales are strong.
Where has GM been passed other than fancy interiors? Dodge is lagging hauling, you can barely look at one before the coils sag with its 1k payload capacity. Quality, that’s laughable, apparently you haven’t seen what the Fiat is known for or how Ford has been falling lately from their Ford tough days. Dodge is behind the curve on the key component of trucks, the drivetrain. A dated engine that calls it self something it isn’t (it isn’t an actual hemi), poor mpg, overrated power (the 5.3 is faster), a diesel engine that can’t be counted on and let’s not forget forgettable looks and failing air suspensions. All you got is a fancier interior that has durability problems if you keep it past the warranty. Good luck with that…
Your overall analogy is right on.A dashboard that is way too busy with shiny doo-dads & big screen tv does not make a vehicle.That rebel version is obscene looking & got its roots thought from the front end of a ’56-’57 GMC pick up.you are also correct with that hemi handle. The folks who buy those dodge 1500 without the air suspension are in for a real treat when they attempt to tow,they appear to be a boat planing off when you pass them. I wish David K good luck & hope he is still happy in a year from now with his new purchase.
Shut your mouth!!!
marvin f
what you don’t want to understand is that our gov. wants a third world nation made out of the USA
why else did we allow nafta which created China as a superpower while turning the us into what is slowly becoming a jobless nation dependent on China for who knows how many products and loss of American jobs so corporations can prosper and the American worker can flounder just saying
first of all, having only one supplier sets up for failure, I am not happy with GM either, they want to shove electric cars down our throats, apparently don’t care what the consumers want, they are becoming anti fossil fuel and the biggest winner here for them is China
I don’t think they intend to shove eletric cars and the board probably knows their EV’s are just smoke and mirrors. If you google all the EV grants they have gotten, they have enough GOV money to pay for all their prototypes and factory 0, so they aren’t out any money, and they see Tesla not making any cars but making a fortune on the stock market. I think it’s all smoke and mirrors as GM knows they won’t need to sell a single EV as only 2% of the country buys them and most of those are all Tesla’s. GM is essentially selling air with their EV plans, and then selling gas guzzling trucks on the other end. I wish I could sell air, but then I’d be the CEO of Nikola.
Shut your mouth
I have a chevy equinox once I get rid of it I’m not going back to gm cars and trucks by them not being as reliable as they once were and I grew up with my dad only buying gm cars and trucks far back as I can remember and I grew up in the 60s and 70s
Smells like Auto manufacturers are taking a page out of big oils play book. Fabricate a reason that limits production and raise the price and profit margins per unit. Price paid per vehicle has never been higher, and the manufacturers are making you feel lucky that you’re able to by a vehicle at full msrp or more.
Gm is the junk of the car world. I drove chevys for years,even got t shirts. I got a ram now. Best truck I’ve ever owed. Out of 13 trucks 12 chevys 1 ram. Could not go back.
Do you wear the Chevy shirts when you drive your RAM?
Sometimes
What year is your Dodge?
Someone was spying on the US auto industry. Figured out what they had to do to cripple the biggest industry we have,what the US stands for.
The ventilators kill
GM calls these trucks “built shy”. I call them potential trouble for buyers. Are they keeping thorough records of what truck is lacking what? Are the places the missing parts go already closed up, thus needing to be re-opened for installation? How thorough will the field work people be on buttoning things up correctly when done with their work?
I may be worrying over nothing, but this just doesn’t seem right.
The Gentle Grizzly,
Another thing that no one is talking about-is surface contamination of the clear coat paint. This is going to be an acute problem especially with Ford – they have had vehicles out in the open for a better part of a year. If I was looking at a new expensive truck-I would look at the build date and buy one that was manufactured recently.-even if it means waiting. Is a Ford Dealer going to clay bar the clear coat and then put a wax on before delivery? Probably not. Then (as is the case with Ford) you have tires, dashboards, etc., that have been sitting for almost a year with the sun beating down on them. NOT GOOD!
Building chip facilities is very expensive. And when chips only powered offices and nerd hobbies no one cared I guess. But now that chips are in everything, shouldn’t America hold control of that close to the vest, like weapons? Letting the rest of the world have chip manufacturing, using relatively cheaper labor, may have cost the USA in the long run. And on top of that, at this moment, the USA government has sanctions and restrictions on selling supplies to China chip manufacturers. Not a joke. I am in the semiconductor supply business, and the USA has told me I cannot sell to most China chip manufacturers. So we better start building and investing in chips here in the USA, and if it takes large government funding, get it done. Our future might depend on it. Or design cars that use points, not electeonic ignition, and carburetors, not fuel injection, and tvs and radios with tubes. And go back to ovens and stoves with pilot lights…
A Ram does not stack up to my 2020 Denali. Drove a Ram. inferior in many ways. And Worse MPG. than GM, probably because they continue to use 3.91 axle instead of GM’s 3.23. And 5.3L is Bullitt proof. And it rides better than the Ram. I do agree that Mary Barra is in over her Electrified head.
Being a CEO doesn’t mean you’re intelligent…look at the idiots in the White House
And the idiot who just got kicked out of the White House
And all the idiots before him as well.
We’re heading straight into a hard recession come 2020. Their surplus will bit them. That’s when I’ll buy a new dulley.
Donald
Not a good time to be selling: Pillows, MAGA hats and other trump gear.
No it’s time to make the vaccine mandatory and shut the economy down again. I pledge I will have America relying on the government more then ever before. I will sign an EO today making every person in the US wear 4 masks anytime they step foot outside there house.
Joe
If she’s wearing 4 masks in Texas, does that mean she’s no longer your sister?
Wear your 4 masks Peter or you aren’t a good citizen, we don’t need to tell you more then one time to do something.
I use to think people were wrong for talking trash to you and calling you a cuck all the time but now I totally understand why they do it and I agree with them you are a cuck.
And James the idiot.
How long are these trucks going to sit outside in the weather – a year? I wouldn’t want a vehicle that has sat out in the elements without moving or running for that long. I’m picturing rust-coated brake rotors at a minimum. I have vehicles I don’t use much but I try to drive them at least every month or two to keep things moving.
Isn’t it silly, you can only order a new truck with limited items on them. No longer can you select the creature comforts that people want because it takes extra chips to drive them. You can not even get an HD radio. So now, how much of a discount will they offer to a semi stripped down truck that has been sitting months waiting for chips to make it run. Will seals dry out ? Will parts go bad just sitting there. I would not want a sun baked lot lizard truck. Better offer 40% off to start.
One would “think” that GM could get President Joe Biden to offer an incentive $$$ to get this plant new equipment so it could bring back GOOD PAYING JOBS to America and that way make the administration look good.
You fools there’s no chip shortage but a customer shortage. Look at the economy and ask yourself who’s selling what and why there’s the real answers for you. They have to come up with a reason all these trucks are sitting around besides no one wants them anymore because they work remotely now and don’t need an expensive paper weight in the driveway anymore than they need an overpriced electric car.
GM thinking they’re too big to fail again.. Bye bye gm! I’ll miss the trans am but I was already doing that anyway.
Our country is being destroyed from within. We were once the greatest nation in the world out producing every one else in everything. Infuriating. They should offer a line of vehicles without all this electronic garbage anyway.
I don’t really care why gm does not have chips. I have had 2021 gmc pick up truck on order for 10 months. Funny thing is gm has chips for 2022’s but leave me waiting.