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General Motors plans to invest $111 million and add 245 new jobs at a plant in Bedford as part of a larger effort to make
its fleet more fuel-efficient.
Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman joined General Motors executives Tuesday to announce the new jobs for GM's 915,000 square-foot
facility in Bedford, one of the company's four Indiana locations. The foundry, which opened in 1954, once employed 1,200
workers but currently employs about 350.
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered GM up to $2.5 million in performance-based tax credits, and the city
of Bedford approved tax abatement for new manufacturing equipment.
GM's restructuring plan announced last year included closing its Indianapolis metal-stamping plant, while keeping plants
in Fort Wayne, Marion and Bedford, which is about 60 miles south of Indianapolis.
The Bedford investments are part of an $890-million GM investment to upgrade V-8 engines at five factories in Indiana, New
York, Michigan, Ohio and Ontario. The spending will help GM meet government fuel economy standards that become fully effective
in 2016. Across all of the plants, the move is expected to create 1,600 jobs.
The new engines will have alumninum blocks and more efficient technology that injects fuel directly into the combustion chambers,
said spokesman Tom Wilkinson.
GM's passenger cars will have to hit 32.7 mpg in 2012 and increase to 36.9 mpg by 2016. Honda Motor Co., meanwhile, will
need to reach passenger car targets of 33.8 mpg in 2012 and ramp up to 38.3 mpg in 2016.
Automakers also are expanding their portfolio of gas-electric hybrid vehicles and beginning to introduce electric cars and
plug-in hybrids.
Consumers can expect improved engines, transmissions and tires, and the use of start-stop technology that halts the engine
at stop lights to save fuel. They also can expect cost increases of around $926 per vehicle by 2016, the government said.
But the government says car owners will save more than $3,000 over the lives of their vehicles through better gas mileage.
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