The future is… small for General Motors.
The American car manufacturer will invest around $145million in the Orion Assembly Centre in Lake Orion, Michigan, to focus on the development of small cars. The vehicles in question will be Chevrolet’s new small car and Buick’s future compact saloon car, the Verano. The plant is now being retooled with the improvements expected to be complete by next summer.
Included in the investment will be 1,550 hourly and salaried jobs at the plant along with 120 jobs at Pontiac Metal Centre. The total investment for the programme to build Chevrolet’s new small car and the Verano has now reached $600million.
GM has also been working in close co-operation with the United Auto Workers in an effort to make the facility as flexible and lean as possible to ensure it is competitive in the small car market segment.
