When the two truck plants are ramped up and operating in three shifts, they will be capable of making 600,000 electric trucks a year, GM CEO Mary Barra said at a news conference in Lansing. The truck’s capability will contribute to GM’s ability to manufacture more than one million electric vehicles per year in North America by the end of 2025.

“We know the demand is there,” Barra said, given the customer response to the electric vehicles GM has announced as part of its growing portfolio. GM will have the broadest portfolio of electric vehicles of any automaker, Barra said of the wide lineup of vehicles in the works, mostly SUVs and trucks, but also a limo-like Cadillac. GM continues to say it will achieve electric vehicle leadership by the middle of the decade, which means toppling Tesla. It also means beating Ford, which has equally lofty EV ambitions and sold more EVs in 2021 than GM. GM is working towards an all-electric lineup by 2035 and plans to convert half of its North American assembly capacity to electric vehicle production by 2030.

The $7 billion is the largest single investment announcement in GM history, Barra said, adding 4,000 new jobs and reflecting GM’s commitment to making Michigan the epicenter of the vehicle industry electrical.

Build electric trucks at Orion in 2024

The Bolts, which use GM’s old BEV2 electric vehicle architecture, are expected to be replaced by new small electric crossovers that will migrate to the Ultium platform that will underpin every new GM EV in the future. to come up.

GM spends $35 billion on electric and autonomous vehicles. Product plans call for 30 new electric vehicles to launch globally by 2025, and all will come from the Ultium platform and be new from the ground up – no existing platforms will be retrofitted, the chairman said from GM, Mark Reuss.

Separate factory for electric Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra

The Silverado EV doesn’t have to be made in the same factory as the conventional Silverado with a combustion engine, because the two share almost nothing. But the Silverado EV will roll on the same assembly line at Factory Zero as the Hummer pickup. Both trucks ride on the same Ultium platform, even though they don’t share any body panels or glass.

GM said the work truck or commercial fleet version of the Silverado EV will hit the streets in the spring of 2023, but retail customers must wait until fall 2023 to place their orders for a fully loaded $105,000 RST. be executed. It looks like the first builds will come from Factory Zero, given that Orion won’t be in production until 2024.

Third GM Battery Cell Plant in Lansing

In Lansing, GM will build a $2.6 billion battery cell manufacturing plant adjacent to the Delta Township assembly plant west of Lansing, creating 1,700 jobs when it comes online in late 2024 .

GM previously announced plans to manufacture battery cells at four plants in a joint venture with LG Energy Solution. The first Ultium Cell plant will open this year in Lordstown, Ohio. The second joint plant will go into production next year in Spring Hill. Lansing is making three, with another location yet to be announced.