General Motors investing $76M to keep up with truck demand
New York and Ohio plants getting upgrades
General Motors is looking to power truck sales with a $70 million investment in its Tonawanda, N.Y., engine plant.
The GM Tonawanda Engine Plant
The automaker has been struggling to keep up with the demand for full-size trucks following a two-month pause in manufacturing earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Dealer inventories have been trimmed significantly and the company said during its third-quarter earnings call that it likely wouldn’t meet its goal of having 600,000 trucks on lots by the end of the year, which is down from the normal level of 800,000.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GM | GENERAL MOTORS CO. | 55.68 | +0.81 | +1.48% |
Ram’s full-size pickups outsold the Chevrolet Silverado lineup in the quarter, but adding the GMC Sierra put General Motors into second place behind Ford, which is also facing supply issues as it rolls out a redesigned F-150.
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The Tonawanda factory builds the V8 engines that are used in GM’s pickups and its all-new Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac full-size SUVs, which were launched this fall and are also seeing strong demand.
GM also announced a $6 million investment in its Parma, Ohio, stamping facility, which builds parts for the trucks and other vehicles, and a $1 billion project to restart truck production at its Oshawa, Canada, assembly plant.