(September 17, 2010) SPRING HILL, Tenn. — General Motors will spend $483 million and add 483 jobs building current- and next-generation Ecotec four-cylinder engines at its powertrain complex here, assuming successful incentive negotiations with local and state officials, GM North America President Mark Reuss said today.

Spring Hill is the original home of the Saturn brand, which has been discontinued.

The additional work would bring to almost $2.9 billion the amount of new U.S. investment and 7,417 jobs that GM has created or retained in 20 U.S. plants since emerging from bankruptcy in July 2009. Employees to fill these positions will be recalled from layoff in accordance with the United Auto Workers-GM National Labor agreement.

“The engines made in Spring Hill will drive the success of GM to meet our customer demands for advanced powertrains which offer high fuel economy without sacrificing performance," Reuss said.

Workers at the Spring Hill
Engine Plant assemble
powertrain parts on Thursday.

“This new commitment to the Spring Hill team will help GM almost triple its North American production volume of four-cylinder engines with direct injection by 2012."

The spending announced today includes $23 million that would add 30 hourly jobs to increase production beginning in the first quarter of 2011 of the current-generation Ecotec engine used in popular products like the Chevrolet Equinox, Buick LaCrosse and GMC Terrain.

Currently, the Spring Hill Powertrain Plant produces three variants of the Ecotec engine:  The Ecotec 2.4L with direct injection (DI) is found in the Equinox, Terrain, LaCrosse, Buick Regal, Chevrolet Captiva (Mexico) and Daewoo Alpheon (Korea). The Ecotec 2.0L DI Turbo is used in models of the Opel Insignia (Europe), Buick LaCrosse (China), and Regal. The Ecotec 2.4L Multiport Fuel Injection engines are shipped to Korea for the Captiva and Antara.

The bulk of the investment — $460 million and 453 hourly and salaried jobs — is planned for the next-generation Ecotec engines.

“Both of these investments highlight the confidence the company has in the work force in Spring Hill to produce outstanding quality engines for our products of today and tomorrow,” Reuss said, adding that the investments have no bearing on the Spring Hill Assembly Plant, which remains on stand-by status should more vehicle production capacity be needed.