GM Invests $750 Million in Michigan Plant to Produce Hybrid SUVs, Digi Mart USA News (Lansing Delta Township, Michigan): General Motors (GM) will allocate $750 million to its assembly plant in Lansing Delta Township, Michigan, to launch electrified versions of the SUVs produced there, namely the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia.
The announcement comes as Toyota threatens to take the sales leadership in the U.S. market away from the Detroit automaker, largely because GM does not currently offer hybrid models at a time when gasoline prices are near record highs and there are no tax incentives for purchasing electric vehicles.
Chief Executive Mary Barra said during the recent presentation of results that GM is already working on launching hybrid vehicles in several segments, a effort that “will not involve additional investments or engineering development.”
Experts estimate that the U.S. automaker’s market share ended the third quarter of the year at 16.6%, a decline of nearly one percentage point from the 17.4% share it held a year earlier.
According to a Reuters report, two-thirds of the investment comes from a fund the Biden administration granted to GM to convert the Factory Zero plant in Detroit into an electric vehicle manufacturing complex, which funds were not disbursed.
The Department of Energy will restructure that grant so that it is now directed to hybrid vehicle production at Lansing Delta Township.
