General Motors will build a mix of light-duty trucks, including the Chevrolet Silverado and Cadillac Escalade, at its Orion Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit, scrapping plans to use that plant to build an assortment of new battery-electric vehicles. The move reflects shifting market demands – and the pressures of the Trump import auto tariffs. Headlight.News has more.
The Orion Assembly Plant now will produce gas versions of the Chevrolet Silverado, rather than the EV.
When operations resume in 2027 at the General Motors assembly plant in the Detroit suburb of Orion Township, the factory will begin rolling out a mix of light-duty trucks, rather than the battery-electric vehicles the facility was originally being tooled up for.
The move will “help meet continued strong customer demand” for products including the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickups, as well as the Cadillac Escalade, the automaker said in a statement.
The move marks a night-and-day shift away from what had triggered the $4 billion renovation of the Orion Assembly plant and reflects not only slowing growth in the EV market but the pressure GM is facing to boost U.S. production in the face of the Trump administration’s hefty tariffs on imported autos and auto parts.
A series of delays
The GM plant in Orion Twp., Michigan has been closed since 2023.
The original plan for the Orion factory was in line with GM CEO Mary Barra’s goal of putting the company on “a path to an all-electric future.” Barra insists that remains her target but has been indicating the path will be more convoluted than first conceived, and take more time to accomplish. Among other things, GM is now planning to launch new plug-in hybrids as a “bridge” between its gas and all-electric models.
Growing concern about demand for EVs has already GM to twice delay the reopening of the Orion plant which has been out of operation since 2023. Among other products, it was expected to produce the all-electric Chevy Silverado EV, supplementing output from the automaker’s Factory Zero in Detroit. As with other battery-powered pickups, including the Ford F-150 Lightning and Tesla Cybertruck, demand for the Silverado EV has lagged well behind initial forecasts.
GM has been under strong pressure to get Orion back into operations. The United Auto Workers Union, for on, had expected to see more jobs at the plant under its 2023 contract. GM, meanwhile, received millions of dollars in subsidies from the State of Michigan for the “Orion Project” which was meant “for the production of a new battery powered vehicle product,” according to documentation acquired by the Detroit Free Press.
But that part of the agreement seems to be of little concern to state officials who simply want Orion to start rolling out vehicles again. “We don’t care what you drive — gas, diesel, hybrid, or electric — as long as it’s made in Michigan.”
Tariffs played a role
Pres. Donald Trump’s tariffs are expected to add thousands of dollars to the price of a typical vehicle.
The Trump administration’s tariffs on imported autos and auto parts appear to have played a role in the shift in production at Orion, several sources indicated. Though details are still being finalized, Pres. Donald Trump has complicated matters with new tariffs on goods imported from Mexico.
While GM now builds some of its popular Silverado and Sierra pickups in Indiana, it also supplies some from a factory in Silao, Mexico. (Some Silverados also come from a plant in Canada, while still more of both the Chevy and GMC pickups are produced in Indiana.)
Based on the price of some higher-end versions of those trucks, the tariffs imported models face could reach into the thousands of dollars per vehicle.
As for the Cadillac Escalade, it today is assembled in Arlington, Texas, alongside three other full-size trucks, Chevy’s Tahoe and Suburban, and the GMC Yukon.
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GM still has big plans for EVs
Two versions of the all-electric Cadillac Escalade IQ.
Reflecting market realities, GM is looking to expand production of gas-powered vehicles at a number of its plants, including one in Fairfax, Kansas and Spring Hill, Tennessee. The latter factory was previously expected to go all-electric, as well.
But the largest of the domestic automakers isn’t walking away from EVs. It is expanding production of some existing products while adding still more to the all-electric line-up. It will finish this year with five EVs in the Cadillac portfolio, the luxury brand’s boss last week crediting demand for models like the Optiq and Lyriq for helping deliver Caddy’s best sales in years.
And while GM will now shift to producing three models using internal combustion power at Orion, the factory will continue to produce the batteries used for EVs assembled at Factory Zero. That operation is responsible for 200 jobs at the suburban Detroit facility. The same is the case at Spring Hill which just this week announced it will start producing lower-cost lithium-iron-phosphate, or LFP, batteries for some of GM’s all-electric models.
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