Automotive World - GM pares vehicle production programmes

GM pares vehicle production programmes

By: Glenn Brooks, Tuesday, June 02, 2009, AutomotiveWorld.com

As part of its bankruptcy restructuring General Motors (GM)has now identified the 14 plants it will close in the US by 2012. The cuts to assembly, powertrain and stamping operations will reduce the number of facilities from 47 in 2008 to 33 by 2012. This sounds drastic, but the number of affected vehicle production programmes is fewer than might be imagined.

One plant that no one should be surprised to see being closed is Wilmington. The Delaware facility builds four differently styled but closely related rear-wheel drive roadsters for various GM brands. While Mazda’s MX-5 continues to be the global leader in this segment, sales of the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky have plummeted in North America throughout 2009, while only one Opel GT was built in May and not a single Daewoo G2X. The axe will fall as soon as next month.

Unlike Wilmington, which is to be shuttered, Orion Township in Michigan will be idled from September. The five-year old Pontiac G6, though worthy enough, never caught US buyers’ imaginations. This Accord-sized sedan, coupe and convertible series continues to be sold with large incentives, even with production slashed by more than a third to only 20,543 units in the 1 Jan-31 May period.

The decisions to close or mothball Wilmington and Orion Township are logical. The same cannot be said for the decision to spend US$1bn in 2008 refitting another plant now scheduled for idling, the former Saturn facility in Tennessee. Spring Hill, which was first opened in 1990, was gutted over an 18-month period that began in March 2007, following a decision to shift production of Saturn vehicles to other locations in North America. It reopened in October 2008, at which time it became the sole production source for the Chevrolet Traverse, still its only product. This big crossover has performed well considering the state of the US market, with just over 35,000 units built in the first five months of 2009.

While Spring Hill might well be vastly underutilised, it would make little sense to simply kill the Traverse; better to shift it to Delta Township in Michigan. The closely related (Lambda architecture) GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave are already made there, as is the doomed Saturn Outlook. But what then for Spring Hill? This, or possibly Orion Township, is likely to be the location for a forthcoming Chevrolet small car. The company says only that such a model will be made at an idled US plant by 2013.

Pontiac, the fourth US assembly location to be idled or closed as part of GM’s bankruptcy filing, is, like Spring Hill, a light truck plant. Worth noting, is that in contrast to Ford’s plans to ramp up capacity for its best selling F-Series from the autumn, GM intends to shut a facility that makes the rival Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra twins. All production at the Michigan plant ceases in October, leaving only Flint, Michigan and Ford Wayne, Indiana making GM’s big pick-ups.

The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Automotive World Ltd.

Published on Tuesday, June 02, 2009