GM is in the midst of a pivot towards all-electric vehicles, with plans to transition its entire light-duty passenger vehicle lineup to battery power by the 2035 calendar year. Obviously, this transition will need to include GM’s production facilities, but now, one report is casting doubt on the future of the GM Fairfax plant in Kansas.
According to a recent report from Automotive News, it’s currently uncertain what GM will decide to do with the GM Fairfax plant while the automaker continues to pursue its goal of offering an all-electric portfolio. In the report, Automotive News lists several North American GM production facilities and how GM will use these facilities to continue production of its internal-combustion vehicles, but states that “One plant – Fairfax Assembly in Kansas, which makes the Cadillac XT4 and Chevy Malibu that are expected to be discontinued – has an unclear future.”
The report states that GM will continue to sell ICE-based vehicles like the GM pickup truck line, the Chevy Corvette sports car, and the ICE-based Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain for at least another four years, with several North American production facilities continuing to build the high-demand, internal combustion vehicles through the 2026 calendar year. This includes GM plants based in Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, Ontario, and Mexico.
Meanwhile, an additional six GM North American plants will be dedicated solely to electric vehicle production, utilizing GM Ultium battery technology and GM Ultium drive motor technology.
It’s also worth noting that a new subcompact electric crossover for the Cadillac brand is currently in the works. This new crossover will be roughly the same size as the current Cadillac XT4 crossover, and, according to Automotive News, is expected to be built at the GM Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico alongside the Chevy Equinox EV and Chevy Blazer EV.
Although GM began its transition to all-electric power with the introduction of high-end models like the Cadillac Lyriq crossover and GMC Hummer EV, more mainstream models are now headed down the pipe. However, it remains to be seen how the GM Fairfax facility will fit into GM’s strategy going forward.
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Comments
Shrinking it’s way to irrelevancy, 50 years in the making! How many executives and uncodes have lost their jobs because they couldn’t find a productive and profitable way to use a plant with product that people want?
AC Delco, Allison Transmission, Direct TV, Electronic Data Systems, Hughes Electronics. The list goes on, but GM continues to get smaller.
Shrinking? The #2 car maker in the world? Selling nearly 4M in US and 12M globally.. I think you are a mistaken.
I think they are more likely #4 right now after VW, Toyota, and Nissan/Renault.
Update the Malibu and dump the XT4. Not everyone wants an ev and practically no one wants the current XT4!
There seems to be an all-in go for broke attitude or trend for all electric all the time these days. I’m all for reasonable intelligent change as it evolves but this rush to kill off ICE automobiles along with having no sedans or coupes to offer really leaves me cold. I’m old enough to remember the high styled, reliable and noteworthy cars big G, big M, formerly produced for the world. In stark comparison now we get look-a-like boring little SUV’s whereas the expensive versions look no better really than the economy versions,
It’s never going to happen I know but I wish somebody in corporate would take a breath and think long and hard before saying a permanent goodbye to the last actual cars the company produces. Once they’re gone I believe they’re gone forever. As for the XT4, as usual, gm can’t get out of it’s own way. Promote the vehicle…even just a little and it would likely succeed very well.
Regardless of whether you think EV’s are the future I can guarantee no one thinks ICE vehicles are the future. Some of the promised battery cell chemistries will make ICE vehicles irrelevant. If I can make a pack that is capable of 600+ miles in good weather and 300 in the cold, there would be almost no reason for a vast number of people to not get an EV. They are faster, quieter, more reliable and require less maintenance.
Yes, you could refuel them faster, but if I’m only charging my EV weekly/biweekly normally who cares/
Right, let’s grow more crops and use more water. Do you understand how much land would be necessary to grow that many crops?
Also they’re called fossil fuels because they were created over millions of years. It’s a finite resource. The smart thing to do is plan on replacing them before they are scarce so they can continued to be used for thing that really need them – ships, planes, etc.
Less maintenance? If you dont consider $1500 for new tires for EVs every 30,000 miles maintenance.
your needs are not the needs of everyone. so for you to dismiss the biggest elephant in the room because it does not matter much to you is why you should probably not respond here anyway. until the highway mileage/range improves and the charging time gets drastically better, the argument will always be that the EV’s take too long to charge, do not last long when pressed for speed/temperature delta’s and when accessories are used. The one you also are glossing over is the cost to replace the battery pack, assuming you even can at around 100K miles. the L-ION batteries are somewhat dangerous with the cobalt thermal run on issues stigmatized with them and the LFP replacements do not provide the same range, though they do in theory last longer.
Because they can’t sell anything else, an when the full move to ev comes in the next 10 years they will be looking in from the outside. Whether we like it or not we are going ev
Peaky,
According to GM Authority:
“Total [US] GM sales during 2021 decreased 13 percent to 2,218,223 units”.
According to Statistica:
“ In 2021, [Globally] General Motors sold just under 6.3 million vehicles. This compares to around 6.83 million units in 2020, representing a decline of around eight percent year-over-year.”
Four million units in the US and twelve million worldwide, as you stated, is wildly off. GM also ceded the crown as best-selling automaker in America to Toyota. It was a title they’d held since 1931. Market share, which was once over well 50 percent is now under 15 in their home market.
Did you also note GM took the crown back last quarter? There’s a lot of things going on right now in the supply chain. Toyota got ahead because they had parts available. Not because they had better products or produced more vehicles than normal. GM just made less.
Flew,
There isn’t really a “crown” to take back for just one quarter. Toyota outsold GM in the first quarter of 2022 and, yes, GM outsold Toyota in the second quarter. We’ll see what the numbers look like at the end of the year to see if GM can reclaim the title.
I just ordered anXT4. will be at my dealer in 2 weeks. It’s a very competitive small SUV and offers options you have to got up in size to get on the competition
There is still a demand for gas powered passenger vehicles like the Chev Malibu. However it appears that regardless of what loyal GM Customers want, GM will continue down the path of not listening to the customer. There will be a day when someone at GM will finally realize why the production and sale of gas powered vehicles manufactured by KIA or other auto makers have taken over the market, but by then it will be too late. I am not a high paid automotive executive, but with any luck someone at the Head Office will read my comments, and consider the following suggestion. General Motors has at their finger tips, the names and addresses of every customer that has purchased a GM vehicle. Why don’t they prepare a survey and send it to every customer in the last 2 years, asking them a couple of simple questions. # 1. If you were going to purchase a new Vehicle in the near future, ” Will you be looking for a passenger car, a small SUV, a large SUV, or a pick up truck ? # 2. ” Will you purchase an EV vehicle or a gas powered vehicle ? ” (Hopefully that will be a wake up call)
Dave Aspden,
There’s an extremely high cost to develop a fleet of all-new electric vehicles. GM has decided EVs are the future and they are committed to being a 100 percent electric carmaker by 2035. The company doesn’t care what consumers want; they’ve made the decision for them.
In order to fund all this investment in electric vehicles, GM had to pare themselves down to only the high-profit products and eliminate anything that was a drag on the bottom line. They need a big pot of cash right now so they’ve eliminated choices for consumers where those choices weren’t making them a lot of money.
Tahoes, Suburbans, Yukons, Solverados, Escalades, Corvettes, Sierras are the money-makers so they’re cranking them out at $60,000 + each while the low-profit models are gone or hard to find and on the way out. The irony is that the gas-guzzlers/big polluters are paying for the all-EV “green” future GM thinks is so urgent and imperative. GM has a catchphrase for this future. It’s ‘Everybody in’ which means you will get in and you will learn to like it. They don’t want to hear from you and they don’t want a silly survey from you. You’re going where they are taking you.
What’s interesting though is that GM did this once before in the 1980s with shrunken cars and FWD. GM decided it was the future and went all-in. The public decided otherwise and GM has never been the same. History does sometimes repeat. We’ll see what happens.
gm’s plan is to become a clone of Tesla
Toyota isn’t going that route
They’re focusing on their expertise in hybrids and ice
Too bad gm not looking like that
Most people would replace their aging ice vehicle with another ice or hybrid
gm will have guessed wrong again
The gamble on EVs to mimic Tesla and their stock prices is a Hail Mary for GM that not even the investors are believing. Note to GM invest in your core products like you are doing with EVs. Enough cheap plastic and boring interiors….
If the Volt did not set so low like a Corvette then more people would have been inclined to purchase.
I never noticed that it sat that low, but it was probably similar to my Cruze (same platform).
However, what the rest of us did notice was that it cost twice as much as any other car that size.
They did have a higher clearance air dam option on the gen1 Volt.
An EV Malibu replacement would also be expensive . Would leave room for a compact the next step down, at prices EV’s haven’t taken off with.
Go for a deal with Hyundai to develop their wet dct into a fun-capable hybrid to kill the Civic Si. They would need Chevy sales volume to make it work out. (I’m picturing a Ioniq rendered with C8 cues as a fwd compact Chevy RS-H)
I don’t know about everyone else, but I read a story where TFL Truck did a test trip- around 1200+ miles in an EV- Chicago to Colorado, I think it took them 2 days and around 24+ hours. They stopped 11 or 12 times to charge batteries and used about 6 hours- 6 HOURS refueling! I travel Californian to Northern Arizona, I have to refuel 1 time and that takes me about 10 minutes. I plan to start vacationing now that I’m retired- driving across the USA, and a Sierra Diesel 1500 will travel 500+ miles on a tank, and still takes about 10 minutes for a fill up. Once there are 5,000,000- 10,000,000 EVs on the road, how long will the ’refueling’ line be and how long will it take to recharge for the next 500+miles? I believe that electric cars are in the future, but more like 30-50 years in the future.
It’s my belief that car and light duty truck manufacturers will get back to building ICE vehicles before 2030, and the good old USA will have a mixture of ICE and EV with ICE being the dominant mode of transportation.
Dave, I think sending out a survey is a great Idea and I think it should be sent to all ages of existing
customer’s as well as a smaller survey to customer who own cars from different auto companies to
see if their next purchase would be to buy a car, cuv, suv, truck or electric. That said on a personal note I
drive a GMC HD and my wife drives a Buick Verano. When I drive on an interstate, I can see break lights
three cars ahead of me, when I am in the passenger seat in the Verano, and my wife tail gates someone my blood pressure goes up fifty points because you can only see the car or worst a truck in front of her. So yes, I don’t want cars to go away, and I will buy ICE vehicle’s as long as I can in the future. As for Fairfax I would love it if they changed over to a two door Cadilac rear drive Black Wing and a Chevelle rear drive SS with the Black Wing engine
Al same situation here. I have been driving Chev Suburban’s for years and I am glad I got my 2021 before the major chip problem. My partner drives a Chev Malibu and looks like that might be the last GM car she will own. She had an Equinox, and couldn’t leave her golf clubs in the vehicle unless she put 1/2 the back seat down. There is enough common sense on this site that a bunch of us would probably operate GM Head Office more efficiently, at less cost, and keep more customers happy.
I agree Dave I wish the early 70’s cars could come back just for two model years just to show the younger generation the excitement of tearing up the road.
Please give us more about the 1500 Sierra and Silverado Diesel. ICE is still the future of the USA for many years.
OWN 3 GM vehicles ,ALL ice ,Not wanting electric vehicle .
All electric by 2035 and out of business by 2040. Stupid move. How many loyal GM drivers really want an EV? Not as many as Mary thinks.
Hybrids and plug in hybrids are a necessary intermediate step to all electric. If GM goes all electric too soon they will be forcing many of their loyal customers to go elsewhere. The necessary grid updates cannot happen that fast. GM is also working quickly to becoming an import company. Closing three plants in the US and then bringing on the Chev Blazer in Mexico was a bad move. Also, turning Buick into primarily import company (China and Korea) was not a good move.
I for one will never buy an EV!
By the comments it is pretty clear that most of us do not want an EV or will purchase one. However there will be some that will purchase an EV as it is not only politically correct, but environmentally friendly. I commend those that have or will purchase an EV, regardless of the harm caused in building new factories, developing EV’s, producing the batteries, and will not mind having to pay thousands of dollars to replace the battery when it dies. When all the dead batteries pile up and no one will know what to do with them, they will create another environmental issue sitting in a yard, but that will be someone else’s problem. With the actions undertaken by the environmentalists using EV’s, they will be making major sacrifices contributing to cutting back on green house gases. I am sure they will practice what they preach. I expect they will not operate air conditioners at home, will not travel on any Airline as planes harm the environment, cease using any electrical devices including, tv’s. computers, stoves, toasters, coffee makers, phone and iPads to cut back on the need of communication towers and satellites, and will begin using candles at home and at the office. I congratulate every EV owner. The more that purchase an EV will help bring the demand of gas down and it will be cheaper for me to fill my vehicle, so I Thank You.
All these naysayers and doubters lamenting the demise of ICE autos should simply go for a drive or ride in one. PERIOD.