General Motors Fort Wayne Assembly Plant, 12200 Lafayette Center Road, Roanoke, Indiana. Staff photo by Lisa Esquivel Long
Jan. 25's announcement by General Motors that it's investing $2.6 billion to build a third U.S. battery cell manufacturing plant and its commitment to all-electric vehicle production by 2035 has some wondering what this could mean for the future of the Fort Wayne Assembly Plant.
According to Dan Flores, a GM spokesman, Fort Wayne's plant provides a crucial function in supplying today's needed vehicles, which will help the company build the capital needed to achieve its electric vehicle goal, and the company is committed to bringing along its employees as it makes the transition.
"Fort Wayne is a very important plant for us," he said.
As the company transitions to an all-electric future, "we have to balance the demand of what customers want now vs. where we think they're going to be 5 years and 10 years and 15 years," he said.
The Allen County plant, 12200 Lafayette Center Road, Roanoke, opened in 1986 and is now 4.6 million square feet. With 4,464 employees as a June, it's the second largest employer in Allen County and a major economic driver for the region. In 2020, it paid over $350.82 million in state wages.
The plant makes GMC Sierra 1500 and Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickups. Both are powered by either gas or diesel, systems that are falling out of favor over environmental concerns.
A year ago, GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra announced that the company would go all-electric with vehicle production by 2035.
Last April, GM President Mark Reuss said that Chevrolet will introduce a Silverado electric pickup that would be built at the company’s Factory ZERO assembly plant in Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan. Reuss also confirmed the GMC HUMMER EV SUV would be built at Factory ZERO.
At that time Flores also said that GM's current full-size truck plants, like Fort Wayne's, would not be impacted, saying, "We are selling every single Silverado and Sierra we can build."
That news came months after GM announced that it had committed more than $27 billion to EV and AV product development, including $7 billion in 2021, and plans to launch 30 EVs globally by the end of 2025, with more than two-thirds available in North America. Cadillac, GMC, Chevrolet and Buick will all be represented, with EVs at all price points for work, adventure, performance and family use.
Flores continues to relay GM's commitment to the Fort Wayne Assembly plant, with an extra $24 million put into the plant in the last couple of years on top of a major $1.2 billion investment to make the next generation of its vehicles.
The year 2035 is over a decade away. "We know the transition's going to take time," Flores said.
Like the latest announcement, part of a joint venture of LG Energy Solution, that will put the new battery cell manufacturing plant in Lansing, Michigan, converting to all-electric is going to take vast investments along the way.
"What's really important is we need the products that Fort Wayne (is) building now ... these products are helping us fund the future," Flores said.
GM has also said it is bringing its employees along, but Flores said he couldn't speculate on what that means for specific facilities on conversion.
"One thing's for sure," Flores said. "Fort Wayne has a long history of building very high-quality products and doing it very efficiently. And we're certain that's going to continue."
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