(November 27, 2018) General Motors on Monday announced a major restructuring that will close five plants in North America and two plants elsewhere, and discontinue six car models. The automaker said Lordstown Assembly in Ohio and Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Michigan will not be allocated any products beginning in 2019, while Oshawa Assembly in Canada is slated for closure late next year. Propulsion plants in Maryland and Michigan also will not be given any product.

Not allocating product doesn’t mean the plants will close, but it puts their future and the jobs of roughly 6,700 hourly and salaried factory employees — 3,800 in the U.S. and 2,900 in Canada — at risk. In addition to the previously announced closure of the assembly plant in Gunsan, Korea, GM will cease the operations of two additional plants outside North America by the end of 2019.

All of the products currently assembled at those three plants — Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6, Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Impala, Chevrolet Cruze and Chevrolet Volt — will be terminated by the end of 2019.

GM said these actions are expected to increase annual adjusted automotive free cash flow by $6 billion by year-end 2020 on a run-rate basis. “The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “We recognize the need to stay in front of changing market conditions and customer preferences to position our company for long-term success.”

GM said it has recently invested in newer, highly efficient vehicle architectures, especially in trucks, crossovers and SUVs. GM now intends to prioritize future vehicle investments in its next-generation battery-electric architectures. As the current vehicle portfolio is optimized, it is expected that more than 75 percent of GM’s global sales volume will come from five vehicle architectures by early next decade.
 
Sources: General Motors, Automotive News