GM to invest $918M in 4 of its U.S. plants for V-8, EV production

UPI ^ | JAN. 20, 2023 / 2:19 PM | By Doug Cunningham

[Red Badger]

Jan. 20 (UPI) -- General Motors announced Friday it will invest $918 million in four of its plants to build its sixth-generation small block V-8 engine and to support electric vehicle production.

The Flint Engine Operations plant in Flint, Mich., will get $579 million for new V-8 engine production. GM will invest $216 million in its Bay City, Mich., GPS plant to support Flint engine production.

Defiance, Ohio will get a $55 million investment, including $8 million to "support future EV strategies." And in Rochester, N.Y., GM plans to invest $68 million, including $56 million for battery pack cooling lines for EV production.

"These investments, coupled with the hard work and dedication of our team members in Flint, Bay City, Rochester and Defiance, enable us to build world-class products for our customers and provide job security at these plants for years to come," GM Executive Vice President Gerald Johnson said in a statement.

GM has more than 50 assembly, stamping, propulsion and component plants and parts distribution centers in the United States.

The auto maker said it has invested more than $37 billion in U.S. manufacturing since 2013, including the Ultium Cells joint venture EV battery plants.

In December, workers at the Ultium Cells in Warren, Ohio, became the first joint-venture EV facility to join the United Auto Workers union.

"Our union celebrates the announcement of these new investments into our GM facilities," UAW President Ray Curry said in a statement. "The skill and dedication of UAW members are a key part of GM's success, and this investment recognizes that our members will remain a vital part of GM's future."

The U.S. Department of Energy reached an agreement in December on a $2.5 billion loan for a partnership between General Motors and LG Energy Solutions to construct three EV battery facilities in Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.

[MtnClimber]

I hope they make more of the LT4 V8 engines like the one in my 2023 Cadillac CT5 V Blackwing.

GM 6.2 Liter Supercharged Small Block V8 LT4 Engine

The LT4 is a gasoline internal combustion engine produced by General Motors for use in ultra-high-performance vehicles. Part of GM’s 5th-generation Small Block engine family, the engine displaces 6.2 liters, has eight cylinders in a “V” layout, and features a purpose-built supercharger.

The engine originally debuted in the Corvette C7 Z06 before going on to power the third-generation, 2016-2019 Cadillac CTS-V as well as the sixth-gen Camaro ZL1, followed by the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing and Cadillac Escalade-V. Mine is a hand built engine with a tag that has the signature of the person who built the engine. Specs: 668 hp, 659 lb-ft torque. It has a battery and an alternator so I call it a hybrid :)

[Red Badger]

If they are smart, they will never stop making V8s................

[Red Badger]

If they are smart, they will never stop making V8s................

[Charles Martel]

V-8s for our overlords and EVs for their servitors?

Lots of Chevy Tahoes in the fedgov fleet, so... yeah.

[Vaduz]

Didn’t Wyoming outlaw electric vehicle sales?.

[Tell It Right]

Hybrid question: Am I right in thinking a hybrid ICE/EV has twice the potential for malfunction? It seems like you'd have real problems if something goes wrong with either the ICE engine or the electric motor.

IMHO instead of an ICE/EV hybrid, a married couple (read: need 2 cars anyway) ought to consider one BEV car and one ICE car. That works for my wife and me. That gives us the best of both worlds with the ability to choose which one best meets that day's needs. To heck with the Dims making people go all one way.

Our EV is great for most driving, including most trips. But there are times an EV won't cut it. So on those times we drive the ICE pickup (both for pickup chores and for times taking the EV on a trip would mean driving through charging deserts). The other times we drive the ICE pickup is if my wife and I split up for the day and need two cars to drive in separate directions.

[Ex gun maker.]

Walking back the “All electric” goal already?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“Plastic everywhere.”

That’s due to the tough CAFE standards. They took out every ounce of metal they could. Our 1983 VW Jetta interior was all plastic and every bit of plastic in that car broke off.

We had a 1987 Volvo 740 Turbo. Great car, but lots of plastic crap. One day we took a family trip to San Francisco (back when you could do that) and parked in a garage. We came back and a lot of coolant was on the floor. The bastards had used a PLASTIC heater control valve on the coolant line. The entire plastic barb fitting snapped off from the plastic valve body. There are places you just don’t use plastic and hot coolant is one of them. Idiot engineers.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Yes. When the whole EV craze is finally realized as an impossible green wet dream, those companies that never quit making IC engines and doing IC engine development will be in the catbird seat.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

That has always struck me as a sensible transportation plan for a family.

[moovova]

Ok...what’s that gonna set me back?

[nascarnation]

LS engines in commercial service often go 300,000 miles. Not sure what you’re talking about.

[Tell It Right]

I tell you a hybrid I'd be interested in is a BEV/HEV (battery EV and hydrogen EV). If you get down to it, a hydrogen car is already a little bit of both (I believe the HEV's have a larger battery than an ICE car, but not close to the size of a BEV). Here's what I'm thinking:

1. It's simpler than a normal hybrid ICE/EV in that a BEV/HEVV is all electric with two power sources (battery and hydrogen). If I'm right that a ICE/EV hybrid has extra potential for mechanical failure (either the ICE engine goes bad or the electric motor goes bad), having just one motor type in a hybrid ICE/EV simplifies things to have less that can go wrong.

2. Hydrogen refueling is practically non-existent. Battery charging seems more common and easier to find on trips, and is easy-breezy to charge at home (if you own your home). So if you can get most of your miles from the battery it's the easiest way to drive (even easier than an ICE car in that an ICE car requires me to stop every now and then to fill up even for local driving, while a BEV requires none of my personal time for local driving since I plug it in at home and ignore it while it charges).

3. Adding a hydrogen tank to a car with a fuel cell adds a lot more miles per weight than adding more battery. My EV gets 200 miles highway driving with the battery capacity it has (which is fine with my wife wanting to stop every 200 miles anyway LOL). A BEV designer using mine as a model would have to make the battery twice as heavy to get 400 miles with the highway speed I like drive. But a BEV/HEV hybrid could add those extra miles with relatively light hydrogen.

4. Hydrogen is more costly to produce than battery charging. It's more costly also than producing gasoline (thus it'd be an argument for driving an ICE instead of hydrogen car). That is, except for one very important thing to those of us who live in the south and own our own home. My solar system that does most of my EV charging for free (as well as powering my now all-electric home mostly free) could also run a hydrogen producing electrolyzer on days I have a fully charged EV and home batteries with no other place for my excess solar to be utilized. The efficiency of an electrolyzer is bad (at best 70% power retained after doing the round trip of using power to produce hydrogen, then later using the hydrogen to create power). So I'd produce hydrogen only when I've exceeded all else I can do with solar. But it could be stored up over time for the next long trip.

[Yossarian]

Ok...what’s that gonna set me back?

If you can find a dealer that sells at MSRP? $104,295

That's what it takes to go 0-60 in 2.5 seconds!

[moovova]

That thing is hugely impressive.

[Fireone]

The “original 350” which was based upon the original 265?

[Red Badger]

Elites will have their V8s...........

[equaviator]

Four words- I hope they fail.

[usconservative]

The V-8s will be needed to tow the EVs.....................

yeah, a "V8 EV" would make zero sense. Moving parts consume energy and reduce range. And exactly what kind of exhaust noise would a "V8 EV" make anyway?

One big, low "whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine" as it pulls away from a stoplight??

[usconservative]

That's what it takes to go 0-60 in 2.5 seconds!

A Tesla in "Insane" mode is faster. That's the claim by Tesla anyway.