The company also teased upcoming new electric vehicles including a Chevrolet small SUV that will cost around $30,000, as well as electric trucks from Chevrolet and GMC, SUVs from Buick, and luxury vehicles from Cadillac.
GM last week recalled Bolt EVs for the third time in nine months because of risk their batteries could catch fire. At stake is what has looked like one of the most promising partnerships in the burgeoning world of electric vehicles.
The factories would be in addition to two battery cell plants that the company announced in the past two years, both geared to ramp up production as GM rolls out 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025, with more than two-thirds sold in North America.
Shares of General Motors Co. closed at a record high Thursday after the company said its efforts to manage the global computer chip shortage have worked better than expected.
The company said it was able to divert precious computer chips to higher-profit models such as full-size pickup trucks and SUVs, and that brought the higher income.
The shutdowns likely will crimp dealer inventory of vehicles made at the plants, but GM says it has managed to keep factories humming that make hot-selling and very profitable full-size pickup trucks and SUVs.
The Bolt will bring the total number of EVs on sale in the U.S. to at least 23, and Edmunds.com expects that figure to reach 30 this year.
For workers at GM and other automakers, the future could be perilous. The more environmentally focused plants of the future will need significantly fewer workers, mainly because electric vehicles contain 30% to 40% fewer moving parts than petroleum-run vehicles.
RACER Trust and Muncie officials said they have reached an agreement for the city to purchase the 53-acre main parcel of the former property.
The electric-vehicle industry has grown exponentially in the past decade but still represents less than 2% of automobiles sold in the United States.
In the partnership announced Tuesday, the companies said Microsoft’s Azure cloud and edge computing platform would be used to “commercialize its unique autonomous vehicle solutions at scale.”
The first product for the new venture called BrightDrop will be an electric-powered wheeled pallet that will take goods from the warehouse to trucks and from trucks to destinations. Then GM will roll out a clean electric delivery van.
Beyond the public company’s $100 million headquarters campus, city and state leaders expect 26 acres to be used for an expansion of White River State Park and new projects potentially with residential, retail and office uses.
General Motors says a pending breakthrough in battery chemistry will cut the price of its electric vehicles so they equal those powered by gasoline within five years.
General Motors is asking a federal judge to reconsider his dismissal of a lawsuit based on new allegations that Fiat Chrysler bribed union officials and GM employees with millions stashed in secret foreign bank accounts.
Experts on managing factory production say GM is making an extraordinary effort for a company that normally isn’t in the business of producing ventilators.
General Motors said it is scheduled to start shipping ventilators as soon as next month from an automotive electronics factory in Kokomo.
General Motors—which hopes to make ventilators in Kokomo—and Ford Motor Co. are among automakers that are throwing their design and production prowess behind two other manufacturers’ efforts to build more ventilators and respirators for health care workers and first responders.
General Motors touted an exclusive new battery technology that could propel some of the vehicles as far as 400 miles on a single charge as it tries to capture electric vehicle enthusiasm.
This photo was taken in the 1940s of a woman sanding parts using a power grinder at the plant. T
