General Motors (GM) announced plans to spend nearly $7 billion in Michigan to convert a factory to make electric pickup trucks and to build a new battery cell plant.
The moves, announced this week, will create up to 4,000 jobs and keep another 1,000 already employed at an underutilized assembly plant north of Detroit.
The automaker plans to spend up to $4 billion converting and expanding its Orion Township assembly factory to make electric pickups and $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion building a third U.S. battery cell plant with a joint-venture partner in Lansing.
Both factories are scheduled to start producing in about two years.
The Orion plant will join GM’s “Factory Zero” facility in Detroit in building new electric Chevrolet Silverados and GMC Sierra pickups. GM will have the ability to build 600,000 electric pickup trucks per year, the company said.
