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GM’s investment in Cruze totals $500 million
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Valley residents
overjoyed by car’s arrival -
Big Lordstown
announcement today -
LORDSTOWN GM/
State assistance -
GM's revival to
benefit Valley -
GM plans to invest
millions in Valley,
Lordstown -
GM engineer: Volt to
be ready on schedule -
GM to invest $445M
in Thailand plant - State OKs more funding
for GM plant expansion - New shift at GM
rolls out well;
CEO plans visit - GM posts $15.5B 2Q
loss, 3rd-worst in its history - GM to cut 15 percent
of salaried workers - Toyota outsells GM
in 1st half - Analysts expect GM
closingsto continue - GM cuts back
on NASCAR spending - GM retiree offers worker
incentive - GM tries to soften
the blow to retirees - Workers glimpse
GM's Chevy Cruze - EDITORIAL: Cruze to
fuel GM Lordstown’s
ongoing positive evolution - GM's CEO dismisses
bankruptcy rumors
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Stories
Cobalt production will be quickly phased out when Cruze production starts.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LORDSTOWN — The advent of the Cruze will mean curtains for the Cobalt in 2010.
Rick Wagoner, General Motors chairman and chief executive officer, announced Thursday that the company will invest more than $350 million to build the Chevrolet Cruze at the Lordstown complex.
It’s also going to be built overseas, where it will be launched first.
In a news release provided by the company before Wagoner’s appearance at the plant, the CEO praised the workforce. “One of the key reasons for the success of the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 is the Lordstown workforce and the strong partnership with the United Auto Workers and local and state officials,” he said.
Wagoner said GM is investing more than $500 million overall to build “the Chevy Cruze product program,” including the investment at Lordstown.
The announcement was to be accompanied by the unveiling of the new vehicle. Cruze is the company’s new fuel efficient compact car.
Production on the next generation small car is to begin in mid-2010.
“The Cruze will build on the already successful Chevy Cobalt,” said Ed Peper, GM North America vice president of Chevrolet. “Our dealers are asking for many more Cobalts than we can build.”
Cobalt sales are up 16 percent year-to-date through July.
When the Cruze begins production in mid-2010, the Lordstown plant will quickly phase out production of the Chevrolet Cobalt, he said. That process should take less than a month.
Peper declined to comment on the fate of the Pontiac G5, which is also made in Lordstown.
“We’re here to stay as a company, and we’re here to stay certainly in this part of Ohio,” he said when asked about the company’s future in Lordstown.
“The Mahoning Valley, this whole region, this plant has been producing cars for GM for over 40 years,” he said. “It’s a loyal GM area.”
Peper described the new Chevy Cruze as the first in a new line of vehicles between small- and mid-size cars with “tremendous fuel economy.”
“It will be a tweener vehicle” between the small- and mid-sided cars. And, “it will have the best fuel economy in the small market segment.”
The Cruze “epitomizes the global nature of the automobile industry and General Motors’ commitment to deliver a fuel-efficient, high quality product,” according to the news release.
“It is the first of a new family of compact Chevrolets that will continue the attention to quality, fuel efficiency and strong value promise of vehicles under the Chevrolet brand.”
“The Chevrolet Cruze was designed and engineered by our global teams in Europe and Asia-Pacific, and will be manufactured in those regions in addition to the assembly plant here in Lordstown, Ohio,” Wagoner said. “Our goal for the Chevrolet Cruze is to lead in fuel economy in this very competitive car segment.”
The Cruze will be launched in Europe and Asia next year. It’s scheduled to make its European debut in October at the Paris Motor Show.
The Lordstown plant employs 4,600 hourly workers on three shifts, and 400 salaried employees. Of that amount, GM recently hired about 1,000 for the third shift.
The facility opened in 1966 with annual wages of $290 million in 2007.
The plant is 5 million square feet on 1,100 acres. The plant produced 280,387 Chevrolet Cobalts and Pontiac G5s last year.
The state of Ohio is providing more than $80 million in incentives to GM for the company to build the Cruze.
Expected to be on hand for this afternoon’s announcement were Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher; and Cal Rapson, United Auto Workers international vice president of the GM Division.
Back in summer 2002, the future of the GM plant in Lordstown was uncertain. The company had announced it was eliminating the production of the Chevrolet Cavalier and the Pontiac Sunfire, the two cars made exclusively in Lordstown, by 2004.
The state provided an incentive package of about $63 million, then the largest ever given by Ohio to a company, to GM to build its new small-car line, the Cobalt, in Lordstown.