- general motors says its first electric truck will go into production in late 2021 at the detroit-hamtramck plant.
- the self-driving cruise origin robotaxi will be built at this plant, as will "a variety of all-electric trucks and suvs."
- this is where the rumored revival of the hummer as an ev brand is supposed to take place.
in the not too distant past, general motors beat tesla to market with an affordable long-range ev. true, the bolt ev is not selling nearly as well as the tesla model 3, but that's not stopping gm from converting its detroit-hamtramck plant into an electric-vehicle production facility with a $2.2 billion investment. once up and running, the factory will churn out electric trucks, suvs, and the just-announced cruise origin autonomous taxi. so we're wondering, can gm beat the cybertruck to market?
the company says it hopes to begin production of its first electric pickup in late 2021. that will soon be followed by the production launch of the cruise origin—although the timeline seems rushed, considering that the software needed to drive the origin might not be done for a while.
this news coincides with reports that the company will be reviving the hummer brand as an electric sub-brand. back in october, news surfaced that the vehicles would be built at the detroit-hamtramck plant, and on january 10, the wall street journal published a report that the automaker hoped to have an electric truck in the market in 2022 and that a hummer ad with lebron james would air during the super bowl on sunday, february 2.
gm states that it will create 2200 jobs at detroit-hamtramck. currently, the plant supports 900 positions and builds the chevrolet impala and the cadillac ct6. it will have to be shut down in february for a few months for renovations. batteries for the new vehicles will come from a gm joint venture with lg chem, which is ramping up to make battery cells in lordstown, ohio.