The Chevrolet Volt has been deemed by many automotive analysts to be General Motors’ great hope – and it appears the company is ready to throw its financial weight by its production.
GM will invest more than $230million in four plants in the greater Flint, Michigan area that will support production of both the Volt range-extended vehicle and the fuel efficient 2011 Chevrolet Cruze. The four plants include Flint Engine South, Flint Tool & Die, Grand Blanc Weld Tool Centre and Flint Metal Centre.
The main objectives of the plants will be to develop automated equipment and tools for both the Cruze and Volt assembly plants including die development and stamping of body panels and other components, as well as the manufacturing and assembly of key powertrain components such as the 1.4l four-cylinder engine generator for the Volt and the 1.4l four-cylinder turbo engine for the Cruze.
Let’s take a look at the plans for each plant:
- Flint Engine South: Will receive $202million to renovate the former I5/I6 operations to produce a 1.4l engine generator for the Volt and the 1.4l turbo engine for the Cruze.
- Flint Metal Centre: Will receive $1.7million to refurbish press lines to produce sheet metal stampings for the Volt.
- Flint Tool & Die: Is responsible for the construction and tryout of stamping die sets for the Volt programme and designs dies for the Chevrolet Cruze. Approximately 50 per cent of dies for the Volt were designed at this facility.
- Grand Blank Weld Tool Centre: General Motors will invest approximately $30million to build the robotic weld tool cells that will assemble the Volt body.
All four plants support General Motors’ environmental efforts as they each recycle more than 97 per cent of the waste they generate including 12 tons of batteries, 47,000 tons of scrap metal and 616 tons of oil.
