GM’s Hamtramck Plant Closure Delayed, Cadillac CT6-V Gets Stay of Execution as Result
Following the new deadline of January 2020, production of Cadillac vehicles will reportedly be allocated to China.
General Motors announced Friday that its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant, previously scheduled for closure in June of this year, will continue to manufacture vehicles into January of 2020.
The automaker initially announced in November that the Hamtramck facility among four other factories in North America (three in the US, one in Canada) would be "unallocated" in 2019, their production lines halted. GM explained that this was a part of a global restructuring to rid itself of models that sell poorly, and free up cash for investment into electric vehicle development and manufacturing.
As part of the Hamtramck plant's cessation of production, the vehicles it produces today will no longer be a part of GM's domestically produced lineup. Some models may continue to be produced at foreign plants and then imported to the US. Models whose production was slated to end in June of 2019 with the Hamtramck plant's closure include the Buick LaCrosse sedan, Chevrolet Volt PHEV, Chevrolet Impala sedan, and Cadillac CT6 sedan. GM confirmed to The Drive that production of the former two ended last week, and with its announcement Friday, that the latter two will continue to be built into January of 2020. Included will be the high-performance version of the CT6 sedan, the CT6-V, which will use an all-new 4.2-liter twin-turbo V8 known as the Blackwing.
Because of the plant's reduced output, GM told The Drive that it has scaled back employment at Hamtramck to 700 hourly employees, and 75 salaried. This workforce will continue to be employed until Hamtramck's planned closure in January.
"This decision was made largely to keep the availability of Cadillac advanced technology in the marketplace (SuperCruise, Blackwing Twin Turbo V8 engine CT6-V)," commented GM's global manufacturing communications lead, Dan Flores.
GM's management has reportedly discussed relocating the CT6's production to another, undisclosed North American plant. If a fitting candidate is not found in the Americas, GM could reportedly produce the CT6 in China, where the model will live on, and import Chinese-built cars to the States, though this is said to be the GM's least-desired solution.
"The CT6 is produced in China for the Chinese market," Flores added. "We have no plans to import the CT6 at this time. We are evaluating our options."