But is there any truth to them?
General Motors had a very good week. It unveiled the 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV, of which the $105,000 Edition 1 trims sold out in less than an hour. Days later it announced an all-electric Chevy Silverado is on the way. Following that, GM's stock reached an all-time. America's biggest car company is now worth about $90 billion. There's genuinely a lot to be excited about, especially for an automaker that filed for bankruptcy in 2009. GM's commitment to an all-electric future means an entirely new lineup of EVs is coming, many of which will be built in the US.
The renamed Factory Zero plant, formerly the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center, will build both Hummer EV truck and SUV as well as the Silverado EV. GM hasn't stated how many units of each vehicle will be built annually, but Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan came up with his own number.
The Detroit Free Press reports Duggan stated 250,000 vehicles a year will be built at the plant. Needless to say, GM is confused and has no idea where that figure comes from. "Not sure where that number came from," said a spokesman "We've never confirmed an annual number. Production will ultimately be determined by customer demand."
Duggan's people quickly switched into damage control mode. The mayor's spokesman said 250,000 is "a long-term aspirational goal the mayor came up with. It did not come from anyone at GM, but it is the mayor's hope for the long term." Truth be told, 250,000 electric trucks annually could actually happen.
GM wants to sell at least 1 million EVs in the US and China by 2025 and what better way to help make that happen than to sell Americans torque-packed pickups. GM has committed to invest $2.2 billion at Factory Zero and, in addition to the trucks, it's also been assigned to build the Cruise Origin EV beginning sometime in 2022. Production of the Hummer EV truck will begin later this year.
Before its conversion to EV production, when it was still known as D-Ham, the facility had a 230,000 annual capacity. Once the upgrades are in place, increasing that figure slightly shouldn't be difficult.
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