General Motors plans to build its next-generation mid-sized pickup in Missouri and will reopen its former Saturn assembly plant in Tennessee to build two new mid-sized vehicles, according to details released Tuesday of its tentative pact with the UAW. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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GM has been tight-lipped about whether it planned U.S. production of the next iteration of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, its small pickups. GM unveiled a Colorado concept in Thailand in March, calling it a mid-sized pickup, but has not said whether it would make or sell the truck in the United States.
Plans for a $380 million investment to make a mid-sized pickup at GM’s Wentzville, Mo., plant were revealed in a 20-page summary of the labor pact released by the UAW. The union says GM has agreed to retain or create 6,400 jobs as part of $2.5 billion in planned product and plant investments under the new accord.
In addition to the new pickups, the Missouri plant will continue to build full-sized vans for Chevrolet and GMC, the union said.
Under the contract, GM’s assembly plant in Shreveport, La., where the Colorado and Canyon are now built, is still scheduled to close by June 2012, and an assembly plant in Janesville, Wis., will remain idled and on standby.
A GM spokeswoman said the automaker won’t comment on future production plans. The company is expected to disclose details of the UAW agreement next week.
GM will find less competition in the market for smaller pickups. Ford is expected to discontinue its compact Ranger later this year. And Chrysler Group recently decided not to replace its Ram Dakota.
Aaron Bragman, an analyst at IHS Automotive, said the market for small and mid-sized pickups has become a tricky one for automakers. The segment has eroded as full-sized pickups have become less expensive and more fuel efficient.
“This is kind of a gamble by GM to say, ‘We think there will be a market for something smaller,” Bragman says. It also will help GM meet tougher fuel-efficiency standards that will ratchet up through 2025.
Compact and mid-sized pickups accounted for 16.5 percent of the total U.S. pickup market in 2010, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
U.S. sales of the Canyon are up 47 percent this year through August to 7,176 units, and demand for the Colorado has climbed nearly 40 percent to 21,814.
