The St. Catharines plant will produce motors for electric pickups and the BrightDrop delivery van.
V8 engines will continue to be produced there for a few years longer.
This should support 500 jobs at the factory.
General Motors announced it will produce electric motors for some of its EVs at the St. Catharines plant in Ontario.
This factory currently manufactures V6 and V8 engines as well as transmissions used in vehicles assembled in Ontario and Michigan.
Making Ultium drive units in St. Catharines will reportedly support around 500 jobs, which is a little less than half of the current workforce.
Since V8 engines will continue to be manufactured there for a few years at least, layoffs have not been announced.
GM is still waiting on support agreements with the federal and provincial governments to finalize the details of its electrification plan for the 70-year-old factory, but it has already made public announcements.
Indeed, General Motors of Canada’s CEO said that the St. Catharines propulsion plant will play an important role in achieving the automaker’s goal of producing 1 million electric vehicles in Canada and the United States by the middle of the decade.
This location was chosen due to its relative proximity to the CAMI factory in Ingersoll which currently produces the BrightDrop electric delivery vans, as well as the rest of the company’s Canadian assembly plants.
This is because General Motors plans to use the electric motors produced in St. Catharines in BrightDrop vans as well as electric pickups such as the Chevrolet Silverado EV and the GMC Sierra EV, which are likely to be built in Oshawa.
Production capacity is expected to reach a level that would supply enough motors for 400,000 EVs per year initially, which is much more than the 50,000 BrightDrop vans which are set to roll off the assembly line every year.
Source: Automotive News Canada
