- On Monday, General Motors announced a $632 million in its Fort Wayne Assembly plant — shoring up manufacturing resources for its next-generation, light-duty internal combustion trucks.
- The automaker currently builds both the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and the GMC Sierra 1500 at the Indiana facility.
- GM has announced more than $2 billion in its Indiana manufacturing operations over the past decade, and $31.6 billion overall, according to the company’s statement.
- For the moment, there’s no mention of specific product from the plant, but this is an indication that there will be next-generation half-ton ICE trucks, even as the company shifts more resources toward electric models.
General Motors isn’t done with internal combustion just yet.
With as many announcements as GM’s made about its EVs, you’d reasonably think we are looking at the last-generation trucks to use internal combustion engines. For those of you who strongly disagree with the company’s electrification push — or at least see it sticking with gasoline and diesel powertrains through the next several years — GM just announced another $632 million round of investment in its Fort Wayne, Indiana manufacturing plant. The purpose, per a statement Monday, is to prepare the plant to build “the next-generation ICE full-size light-duty pickups.”
While the announcement did not specifically mention product, it did say the investment will support new conveyors, tooling and other equipment in the assembly areas.
Presently, Fort Wayne Assembly builds both Chevrolet and GMC variants of the T1XX trucks. Overall, GM detailed at least $2.3 billion in resources to retool its North American plants to build its next-generation ICE models. This latest announcement, along with a series of others, shows the automaker intends to stick with internal combustion for several more years, even as it says it will fully transition toward EVs by 2035.
GM also announced more than $500 million will go toward the Arlington, Texas facility, which builds all its full-size SUVs including the Chevy Tahoe/Suburban, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade. Beyond that, it will also invest $210 million in its Oshawa Assembly plant to build full-size ICE trucks. The plant in Ontario, Canada builds both light-duty and heavy-duty versions of the Chevrolet Silverado.
We will have to see how the investment and retooling unfolds, as the EPA recently proposed new rules to dramatically cut fleet emissions over a five-year period from 2027-2032. GM also recently paid $128.2 million in fines for missing Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for 2016 and 2017, according to a report released earlier this month.
