GM Discontinues Chevrolet Volt, Impala, Other Cars in the U.S.

General Motors will discontinue many of its passenger cars in the U.S. as consumers continue to favor crossovers. Pruning the lineup is part of GM’s larger effort to save $6 billion by the end of 2020. The move echoes Ford’s pivot away from cars earlier this year, and comes in spite of GM’s insistence that it remains committed to cars.

GM announced today that it will cease operations at three U.S. assembly plants and two outside of the U.S. by 2019. With those closures, six models are on the chopping block. According to a chart provided by GM, the automaker will axe the U.S.-built Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Cruze, and Chevrolet Volt in March 2019. Starting in June, GM will no longer make the Cadillac CT6 in the U.S. Chevrolet Impala production in the U.S. will also end in June, while Canadian production will continue until the fourth quarter. GM will stop making the XTS in Ontario, Canada, in the fourth quarter as well. All these models have experienced double-digit declines in U.S. sales through the third quarter, with the exception of the XTS.

The plants to be unallocated in 2019 include the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant in Michigan, the Lordstown Assembly plant in Ohio, and the Oshawa Assembly plant in Ontario, Canada. GM is also shuttering operations at the Warren transmission plant in Detroit, which makes six-speed transmissions for the Chevrolet Malibu, GMC Acadia, and other products. The Baltimore transmission plant that makes gearboxes for full-size pickups will also halt production.

GM will cut 15 percent of its salaried workers. This will include 25 percent of its executives “to streamline decision making,” GM says.

“The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future,” GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. “We recognize the need to stay in front of changing market conditions and customer preferences to position our company for long-term success.” Earlier this year, Barra said GM was still committed to cars.

Meanwhile, GM will double its resources for electric and autonomous vehicle programs over the next two years. Other areas of expansion include the use of virtual tools to lower development time and costs, integrating vehicle and propulsion engineering teams, and increasing high-quality component sharing across models. By early next decade, GM expects more than 75 percent of its global sales volume to come from five vehicle architectures.

Source: GM

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