Production of the 2022 Corvette Stingray has been put on pause for at least a week after major tornadoes ripped through Kentucky and caused damage to the GM Bowling Green Assembly plant.
“We can confirm that the fire that took place as a result of the tornado activity at Bowling Green Assembly plant early Saturday morning (December 11th) has caused damage to the facility, including the roof and an employee entrance. The small number of employees that were onsite are all safe,” said Communications Manager at the Bowling Green Assembly Plant, Rachel Bagshaw, in a statement sent to GM Authority.
“Maintaining a safe work environment for plant employees is our top priority. Therefore, we are cancelling production on first and second shift the week of December 13th as our trained teams work to get tooling, equipment, and the facility space up to standard,” she added.
The GM Bowling Green Assembly plant employs 1,200 hourly workers and 180 salaried workers. Hourly workers there are represented by UAW Local 2164.
In a letter sent to plant employees Sunday, UAW Local 2164 Shop Chairman Jason Watson said the plant was “in the path of the widespread devastation and damage,” and that his team was undertaking “preliminary tasks,” at the facility to assess the damage. He also said there were a small number of employees in the plant when the tornado hit, all of whom were marked safe.
Sales of the C8 Corvette Stingray have been strong this year, with GM delivering 24,748 units through the first nine months of the year. Demand has also outpaced supply, with Chevy’s director of car and crossover marketing, Tony Johnson, admitting earlier this year that the automaker was “not even close” to meeting the overwhelming demand for the vehicle.
The 2022 Corvette Stingray entered production at the GM Bowling Green Assembly plant on September 6th. The 2022 model year introduced minor changes to the mid-engine sports car, including three new exterior colors, alterations to the 6.2L LT2 V8 engine for emissions-related improvements and the addition of a new IMSA GTLM Championship C8.R Edition package, among more.
We’ll provide an update on the production situation at Bowling Green Assembly once more information is available.
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Comments
Glad no workers at this facility were hurt or killed. Plant safety and health folks need to revisit fire suppression systems. Suggest you bring in Ansul for an evaluation.
I wonder about hail damage to new vehicles awaiting shipment on the property
Most of the damage was done roof and electrical. Often fires like this are transformers or downed wires.
The track took a bigger hit. The Holley tower was hit hard and the buildings where paint protection is applied took a major hit.
The Museum is on the other side of the freeway and did not receive much damage.
I worked in a plant that a hurricane hit a few years ago and I give them credit for only needing a week to get things back on tract. I’m thankful no one was hurt. Corvette’s will be built, a week is not much delay considering everything else. Hopefully the workers families are OK.
This poor C8 can’t catch a break can it? So many problems popping up since “Day One” of production at the Bowling Green Plant. Such a great car, built by some of the nicest folks you’ll ever meet at any auto production facility anywhere in the world and as if such things as COVID, UAW Labor Strikes, Problematic Parts Suppliers, were not enough of a mess, now, Mother Nature seen totally “loosing it” and damaging (some of) this amazing production facility, those poor folks located in the Tornado’s path all through out The South can’t catch a break, we can sure hope and pray that things get back up and running (thank goodness the Corvette Museum is still open, whew!) for all of those amazing folks who build this most incredible of Corvette ever! I’ve owned many different generations of Corvette’s over the years, and I’ve never, ever seen so many problems affecting the production of a Corvette model. Lets all hope for a better “production run year” in 2022 for the C8…the folks who work at the Bowling Green Plant certainly deserve to work through at least one full year of building the C8 model without ANY production stoppages holding back production…God Love’em All.
The relatively little amount of damage is testimony to a robust building construction. Glad everyone is OK