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Here’s Who Will Manufacture Lots Of Seats For GM EVs

Major vehicle seat manufacturer Lear Corp. is gearing up to add even more production capacity at several sites in Michigan as GM, one of its main customers, prepares to roll out more electric vehicle models.

Lear just announced it is leasing 268,000 more square feet of the facility formerly used as the Cadillac Stamping Plant in Detroit, making it the only occupant of the plant’s total 684,000 square feet. Crain’s Detroit Business says Ray Scott, CEO of Lear, indicated the company will have more expansion announcements in the near future.

Logo of GM seating supplier Lear Corporation.

A year ago, Lear inked a deal with GM to supply the latter with seats for the upcoming 2024 Chevy Silverado EV. Lear handled most aspects of the seating design, including choosing materials such as seating foam, trim, and plastics, along with designing the seat belts, adjustment mechanisms, and internal structure.

Lear slated production of both front bucket seats and rear bench seats for the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV to take place at the former Cadillac Stamping Plant. Production of the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV will start in spring 2023.

Lear Corp.’s strong involvement with GM’s push into electric vehicles was underlined in late 2022. In October, GM picked Lear as its exclusive supplier of Battery Disconnect Units (BDUs) for new GM Ultium-based full-size SUVs and trucks. Lear will continue in this role at least through the 2030 calendar year.

The Lear battery disconnect unit built for GM vehicles.

Two months later, in December 2022, the state of Michigan approved Lear’s plans to build a BDU plant in Michigan’s Independence Township. The company is dedicating $80 million to construction of the facility, which it claims will create hundreds of local jobs.

Lear’s latest expansion, leasing the full factory floor area of the Cadillac Stamping Plant, will enable it to potentially supply GM with seating for multiple EV models. Its seating production is already being used at GM’s Factory Zero in Detroit, previously known as the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center.

As a reminder, GM has aggressive plans for EV production and broadening of its EV lineup. It intends to offer EVs in one-third of all vehicle segments by 2025 with 30 individual EV models available worldwide. These 30 new EVs will include models from the Cadillac, GMC, Chevrolet, and Buick nameplates.

GM further claims it will offer EVs “at all price points.” It will debut models meeting the needs of many different users, from family vehicles to performance, work, or adventure. GM expects over  40 percent of its U.S. portfolio to consist of EVs by late 2025.

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Comments

  1. This is great news that they are being made in the US.

    Reply
  2. Lear does make some mighty comfortable seats.

    Reply
  3. Wish they would bring back the 60/40 front bench seats in pickups.

    Reply
    1. David,

      . . . and second-row bench seat in Tahoe to prevent cargo from sliding between seats to behind front-row buckets.

      Montana Bob

      Reply
    2. Yeah, my older Silverado has a 60/40 front bench.

      Reply
  4. Production of the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV will start in spring 2023.

    It’s spring!

    Reply
  5. Who is the lug nut that added the thumbs down to all of the Lear seat comments? Are you with La-Z-Boy?

    Reply
  6. cranc: HEY HERE’S AN IDEA, HOW ABOUT BRINGING BACK (FROM THE 1940’s) THE OLD RUMBLE SEAT
    IN THE BACK OF THE CAR?

    Reply
    1. Better yet, how about a seat in the Frunk of a new Ford F-150 Lightning?

      Reply
      1. Better yet why don’t we just strap on all these idiotic ideas generators to the roof of the car in an old rocking chair!

        Reply
  7. And when I read this, it gives me pause about GM’s future prospects in the EV space. Interesting contrast with Tesla in that while GM assembles vehicles through a myriad of thousands of auto parts suppliers, which in this case are car seats to Lear Corp, Tesla produces many of their components in-house, from custom microchips, including seats. There is a cost penalty in terms of margin when you outsource to a third party. Meanwhile, Tesla takes those savings and based upon what they shared at their Investor day presentation, commits to take another 50% of the cost out of future vehicles through innovation an advances in manufacturing. Will be interesting to see how that plays out, but if the latest monthly vehicle outputs are an indication, then GM has its work cut out for them. The lead seems to be widening, and the 25-30 new vehicles that Mary Barra promised seem to be vaporware at the moment.

    Reply
  8. GM has become an auto-assembler for a number of reasons and there is no going back to vertical integration. Going all EV will only increase the content GM doesn’t make (batteries vs engines, etc.). GM found that its union made content cost more than what outside companies cost, plus it was also a way to shed healthcare costs. Ford went down the same road, but by splitting into Ford e and blue may have found a way to have more integration on the e side. We will see how it works out. But, of all of the major global OEMs, GM is by far the least vertically integrated with VW, BMW and Tesla on the other end of the spectrum. On the surface, this seems like a big deal, but GM doesn’t sell any volume BEVs.

    Reply
    1. There’s nothing in your comment that I disagree with. Everything that you’ve said is well known and understood. My point was that the Tesla business model takes that of the legacy OEMs and completely demolishes it. A conventional auto assembler like GM is going to be challenged to compete with what Tesla is doing. By vertically integrating the vast majority of its supply chain, it gains more control over its cost model, especially when it comes to battery supply. Tesla is taking the OEM model and turning it on its head. Without question, and this is not me being a homer, but in the words of Jim Farley from Ford, they are completely transforming the vehicle manufacturing line assembly model, which fundamentally hasn’t changed in 100 years. Giga casting, dramatically reducing the number of parts, an in-house team of the best engineers in the industry across all disciplines – software, metallurgical, battery, process automation, AI and robotics puts the incumbents at a strategic disadvantage. I think what is most telling are the monthly and YTD production numbers. When Tesla can produce more vehicles in a month than what some legacy OEMs can produce in a year, that is a bad sign. And this isn’t even accounting for Project Highland innovations to be honed at Giga Mexico which aims to further reduce production costs by another 50% and is slated to be built in 9 months. Yes another 50%. By being at the mercy of auto parts supply chains, how GM is going to compete with far more agile competitors like Tesla as well as the coming wave of Chinese imports is the question. It is healthy to have strong competitors in the BEV space, but thus far, it seems as if GM is mostly talk. Not seeing the execution in terms of scaling up production and that’s bad for the company, and our economy.

      Reply

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