Production of the Lyriq and Vistiq will be paused in December, along with the entire Spring Hill factory.
When the factory restarts, it will do so with only one shift for at least the first five months of 2026.
The $7,500 U.S. Federal EV tax credit is set to expire on Sept 30th, reducing the expected demand for EVs in the following months.
Only days after having announced it would pause the production of the GMC Hummer EV and Cadillac Escalade IQ, General Motors told employees it would also temporarily stop making the Cadillac Lyriq and Vistiq in December.
Both of these announcements are related to the upcoming end of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit in the United States, which is set to expire on September 30th.
According to GM North America president Duncan Aldred, the company expects to see lower electric vehicle sales next quarter and believes it may take several months for the market to normalize. Therefore, the automaker will temporarily idle factories and cut back shifts in order to avoid overproducing models that might not sit on dealer lots longer than usual over the next few months.
This is why the Spring Hill, Tennessee plant, where the electric Cadillac Lyriq and Vistiq, along with the gas-powered XT5 and XT6 are made, will be idled for the month of December, in addition to a week each in October and November.
2026 Cadillac Vistiq | Photo: Daniel RufiangeSince the Cadillac XT6 is set to be discontinued at the end of the year, this has probably pushed its retirement forward by a few weeks.
In the case of the Lyriq and Vistiq, this pause is only temporary, but sources told Automotive News that the factory will reopen in January with only one shift instead of two, which will significantly reduce the production rate for at least the first five months of 2026.
Affected workers will reportedly be temporarily laid off.
Reuters also reported that GM is indefinitely delaying the start of a second shift for the Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas City, Kansas, which will begin producing the next-generation Chevrolet Bolt EV later this year. It is unclear how this could affect plans to add the gas-powered Equinox to this factory’s products starting in 2027.
While EV demand has generally slowed over the last year or so, General Motors has had impressive success with its electric vehicles, thanks in part to a wide lineup of diverse EVs, from off-road-focused trucks to compact crossovers and luxury three-row SUVs, but also because of aggressive pricing strategies that make many GM EVs great values in their segments.
GM to Halt Production of Hummer EV, Escalade IQ at Detroit Factory Until October
This explains why the automaker sold more electric vehicles in Canada than any of its competitors during the first half of 2025 and also how it achieved its best EV sales month ever in August, with 21,000 electric Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC vehicles finding buyers.
September is also expected to be strong for EV sales as American customers rush to buy in order to benefit from the tax credit, which had been in place for about 15 years before being abolished by the Trump administration.
It will be interesting to see how the American market reacts to this end of incentives, in terms of both demand and pricing.
Source: Automotive News
