It’s about time D-Ham caught a break.
For most of this century, General Motors’ sprawling Detroit-Hamtramck plant has built many of the automaker’s most innovative and important cars, but not the profitable, hot-selling trucks and SUVs that keep assembly lines humming and let workers sleep easy at night.
Sometimes called Poletown because GM built it on the site of a Polish immigrant community straddling the Detroit-Hamtramck border, the plant always seemed one step from oblivion.
That may have changed when GM President Mark Reuss declared “The future is here and now” in a conference room at the plant Monday.
He promised the plant will build electric pickups, SUVs and self-driving shuttles “beginning in late 2021” in a rollout that will include “multiple brands” and the introduction of ”multiple models a year.”
Success is far from certain. It depends on GM’s ability to develop great electric-powered pickups, SUVs and autonomous shuttles, and the American public’s willingness to buy them in significant numbers.
$2.2 billion, 2,200 jobs
“I do believe we can populate this plant with 2,200 workers,” said Mike Plater, chairman of UAW Union Local 22, which represents workers at the plant and participated in negotiations that convinced GM to invest $2.2 billion in a plant the company could have just as easily bulldozed.
“These workers show up every day committed to building quality vehicles.”
Vehicles from the plant won many prestigious awards, but in 2018 Detroit-Hamtramck — D-Ham in GM shorthand — led the list of plants GM said it would close because of falling sales and buyers’ shift from traditional cars to SUVs and pickups.
More: GM commits to $2.2 billion investment and 2,200 jobs at Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly
More: Detroit-Hamtramck workers will be guaranteed jobs in redesigned plant
Instead, Poletown will close briefly after production of Cadillac CT6 and Chevrolet Impala sedans ends this winter, but some members of Local 22 will be back by the end of this year. They’ll work with engineers as the 35-year-old plant is gutted and remade. Most of the local’s workers will move to neighboring GM plants, with the option of staying there or moving back when production resumes.
“This is a commitment to new technology,” GM Executive Vice President of Global Manufacturing Gerald Johnson said. “We’ve got to turn the factory over completely in 18 months.
Home to Hummer?
D-Ham was a launching pad for careers. GM CEO Mary Barra once ran it. President Barack Obama visited to celebrate production of the world’s best plug-in hybrid, the Chevrolet Volt. Close to GM’s headquarters and tech center, GM picked the plant to build cars like the Volt, Cadillac ELR and Cadillac CT6 — fine, high-profile vehicles that won awards, but couldn’t fill the huge facility and make its jobs secure.
The result: Some of GM’s best employees spent their careers looking over their shoulder, afraid of layoffs.
That could change now, if GM’s executives, designers and engineers create electric vehicles that excite buyers and answer questions about driving range and charging time.
Reuss wouldn’t say Monday what exact vehicles the plant will build other than the Cruise Origin, a shoebox of a shuttle from GM’s autonomous vehicle unit, ETA TBA.
He dropped a broad hint that the lineup will include Hummer, reborn as an upscale electric off-roader within the popular GMC brand. A few weeks ago, I wrote that reviving the Hummer brand would be a costly distraction from brands GM should concentrate on. The plan to fold its recognizable looks and rugged reputation into widely admired GMC brand avoids that trap elegantly.
A broad line of pickups
Poletown also looks likely to build other electric pickups for Chevrolet and GMC.
“Our electric pickups will do everything a pickup customer wants,” Reuss said, promising to build models with towing and “true off-road” ability and more basic vehicles.
They, and other vehicles we know nothing about today, will use GM’s new architecture for electric vehicles. The architecture is scalable, meaning it can underpin a wide variety of vehicles for different segments and price ranges for several brands.
Pickups and SUVs are also the kind of vehicles built in assembly plants where workers spend more time thinking about overtime than a possible shutdown — if GM can create electric versions buyers can’t resist.
“Welcome to the future, y’all” GM manufacturing chief Johnson said to workers and guests at D-Ham on Monday.
Vehicles GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant has built
Cadillac Seville
Cadillac El Dorado
Buick Riviera
Oldsmobile Toronado/Trofeo
Cadillac Allante
Cadillac DeVille
Buick LeSabre
Buick Lucerne
Pontiac Bonneville
Cadillac DTS
Chevrolet Volt
Opel/Vauxhall Ampera
Holden Volt
Chevrolet Malibu
Cadillac ELR
Buick LaCrosse
Cadillac CT6
Chevrolet Impala
Source: General Motors
Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter.
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