GM’s Spring Hill Reborn As Third EV Plant To Build Cadillac LYRIQ

General Motors Cor
GM
p’s. Spring Hill, Tenn. Assembly Plant was born to be different. It’s where the plastic-clad, import-fighter Saturn brand was built. Its workers and their UAW local enjoyed a unique relationship with GM. Saturn was jettisoned more than a decade ago, but Spring Hill will now join two other GM assembly plants in being reborn to produce the all-electric Cadillac LYRIQ and future electric vehicles, the automaker announced Tuesday.

Speaking from the former Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant, now known as Factory Zero, where the new electric GMC Hummer EV will be built, GM executive vice president of global manufacturing Gerald Johnson announced the company will invest $2 billion in the Spring Hill plant. That money will go to upgrade and expand its paint and body shops, and to retool the general assembly area to accommodate production of the LYRIQ. That work will begin immediately. 

GM’s third EV plant is the Orion Assembly Plant outside Detroit where the Chevrolet Bolt is built. 

With the Cadillac LYRIQ coming to Spring Hill, the vehicle it currently builds, the next generation GMC Acadia SUV will move to Lansing Delta Township Assembly near Lansing, Mich. where the company will invest more than $100 million. 

GM also announced it is investing:

• $32 million in its Flint, Mich., assembly plant for future production of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks. 
• $17 million in its Romulus, Mich. propulsion plant to “enhance automation and increase capacity” for GM’s 10-speed truck transmission used in its full-size pickups and other products that include the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban and GMC Yukon XL and Cadillac Escalade
• $3.5 million in Orion Assembly with additional $750,000 at the Brownstown Charter Township, Mich. site to support increased production of the Cruise autonomous vehicle test vehicle at Orion. 

“We are committed to investing in the U.S., our employees and our communities,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra in a statement. “These investments underscore the success of our vehicles today, and our vision of an all-electric future.”

Tuesday’s announcements came hours before the formal unveiling of the GMC Hummer which will be built at Factory Zero and resurrects a name once associated with gas-guzzling largesse. The Hummer brand was discontinued in 2009 when GM declared bankruptcy but the Hummer name has now been reincarnated as a zero-emission GMC electric vehicle model. 

It’s all part of the GM’s move to transition itself into a mainly EV automaker evidenced by broadening its electric vehicle product line and investments to increase manufacturing capacity to build them. 

In March, the company announced a joint venture with LG Chemical called Ultium Cells LLC, investing more than $2.3 billion to build a battery cell manufacturing plant in Lordstown, Ohio not far from the massive passenger car assembly plant GM shuttered. Both the Cadillac LYRIQ and Hummer EV will be powered by Ultium batteries. 

For Spring Hill Assembly, it’s a case of coming full orbit from Saturn to the planet EV—always ready for still another launch.