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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

GM Revamping Engine Plants With $890M Investment

04/27/2010
General Motors will invest more than $890 million which will create or retain more than 1,600 jobs in five North American plants to produce a new generation of fuel efficient small block truck and car engines.

The investment includes revamping at five plants: Tonawanda, N.Y.; Defiance, Ohio; Bedford, Ind.; Bay City, Mich. and St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

The investment will create about 1,600 new jobs focused on developing new engines that save more fuel through direct injection technology and advanced combustion system design.

Two plants will support the engine production, with Tonawanda getting $400 million and 710 new jobs. St. Catharines, Ontario will get an investment of $235 million resulting in approximately 400 jobs.

Three plants will support engine casting and component production: Defiance, Ohio is getting $115 million and will have 189 jobs created; Bedford, Indiana will get $111 million resulting in about 245 jobs and Bay City, Michigan will get an investment of $32 million resulting in over 80 jobs.

The investments include facility renovation and installation of new, highly flexible engine machining and assembly equipment and special tooling designed for manufacturing efficiency and engine quality. At the casting facilities, investments include expansion of semi-permanent mold and precision sand casting technologies that result in a high degree of dimensional accuracy and material strength properties needed to support the newer, more efficient engines in GM's product portfolio.

The next generation small block engine family will have unprecedented fuel efficiency through direct injection and an all-new advanced combustion system design. The new engine family will rely exclusively on aluminum engine blocks, which are lighter and contribute to the improved fuel efficiency. In addition to being E85 ethanol capable, these engines are being designed with the capability to meet increasingly stringent criteria emissions standards expected throughout this decade.

Since the launch of the new GM last July, the company has announced investments of more than $2.3 billion at 22 facilities in the U.S. and Canada. These investments restored or created more than 9,100 jobs.

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