GM postpones ramp-up of its electric pickup production

The US carmaker wanted to add a second plant to manufacture the all-electric Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV next year. But because of low demand, that won't happen until the end of 2025.

General Motors is postponing ramping up the production of its electric pickup trucks -apparently due to weakening demand. The carmaker wanted to add production lines at a second facility, the Orion Township assembly plant in the US state of Michigan, where production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and the upcoming electric GMC Sierra EV was supposed to start in 2024.

But GM has now announced that the conversion of the Orion plant to electric pickups will be rescheduled until after the end of the Chevrolet Bolt production, which comes off the assembly line there until the end of the year. It would then close the plant during the conversion and not start it up again until the end of 2025. The roughly 1,000 workers in Orion Township will be reassigned to other GM plants in the state in the meantime.

According to GM, the start of production of the Silverado EV and Sierra EV in Orion would be delayed to better manage capital investments in electric vehicles and align the investment with evolving demand.

“We’re looking at EV demand and the trendline for EVs is stabilizing. It is not rising as fast as originally forecasted,” GM spokesman Kevin Kelly told US media.

GM currently manufactures the Chevrolet Silverado EV in Detroit-Hamtramck, along with the GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV, and the Cruise Origin electric shuttle. Production in Detroit-Hamtramck will continue and production of the GMC Sierra EV is scheduled to begin there next year.

Ford, meanwhile, is temporarily cancelling one of the three shifts at its Michigan plant that builds the F-150 Lightning e-pickup. Here, too, the reason is weakening demand.

freep.com, cnn.com