GM Announces Additional $63M to Support Next-Gen Truck Assembly in Oshawa
General Motors (GM) announced t will invest another $63 million in its Oshawa, Ont., assembly plant to support the production of its next-generation pickup trucks. The news comes on the heels of a planned shrinking of its workforce at the factory.
The new allocation of funds will go towards upgrading the plant’s stamping operations, which will support the assembly of next-generation, gas-powered pickup trucks at the location.
The automaker says that, with this latest decision, it has invested a total of $1.5 billion in the plant since 2020, which includes an earlier commitment of $280 million announced in 2023 to retool the plant and prepare it for production of the aforementioned pickup trucks.
The move comes just as the automaker's image in Canada is suffering. Shortly after ending production of the BrightDrop electric delivery vans at its CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ont., GM announced that it would be laying off 500 people at its Oshawa plant.
The move, long planned, came as the automaker ended the third shift at the facility. However, the timing of the workforce reduction — in the midst of a trade war with the United States, while GM invests in its American assembly plants — left the automaker’s image tarnished north of the border.
Whether this newly announced investment helps remains to be seen. General Motors says that it is still assessing future opportunities at its CAMI plant. Reports indicate that those opportunities may include a sale to Europe’s Dumarey Group, which may be interested in bringing the BrightDrop back into production.
GM currently assembles both the light and heavy-duty versions of Chevrolet Silverado in Oshawa. Details regarding its next-generation pickup trucks were not available at time of writing.
