GM Works Ten Weeks of Downtime Into 2017 for Factory Retooling

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

General Motors will be idling multiple North American plants for 10 weeks this year to allow for the factory retooling necessary to build upcoming models. It also provides a buffer for the overabundance of product it currently has. At the moment, GM has a 97-day supply of vehicles. That’s well above industry average and substantially higher than its domestic peers. As of April 1st, Ford Motor Co. had 80 day’s worth of product and FCA had 82.

“Our inventory is high because we’re going to take 10 weeks out in the back end of the year as we’re modifying our plants, particularly with pickup trucks,” Alan Batey, GM’s head of North America, explained to reporters after GM unveiled a redesigned Buick Enclave.

Despite overall demand being lower than anticipated for this year, Batey says GM is exactly where it wants to be in terms of inventory and sales. He explained to Automotive News earlier today that GM intends to leave 2017 with roughly the same vehicle reserve as it entered it with. However, it will stall production further if the market takes a turn for the worse. “If we need to balance supply and demand, we’ll do it,” he said.

While the 10 week reprieve should help, odds are good that GM will need to idle factories anyway. General Motors terminated production shifts at two plants in Michigan and one in Ohio in 2017’s first quarter. That helped to bring inventories down from a 123 day supply in March to 101 days in April. However inventory of some models, like the Chevy Silverado, have remained abnormally high.

That’s most likely due to a product changeover for next-generation pickups sometime between now and 2018. GM hasn’t confirmed anything yet but Batey said that trucks will comprise a large portion of this year’s factory retooling. “I’m not going into details,” Batey said, “but we have some exciting things coming out.”

GM will begin depleting its 925,000 unit surplus in the second quarter of this year, when retooling begins in earnest. Assembly changeover will account for the next-gen Chevrolet Equinox in March and updated versions of the the Chevy Traverse, Buick Enclave, and GMC Terrain sometime in autumn. Pickup trucks are expected to follow in 2018.

[Image: General Motors]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • LeMansteve LeMansteve on Apr 14, 2017

    What are the workers in the picture doing? The air tools in their hands look far too small to be lug wrenches. Plus, I would expect the wheels to be fastened with one of those big machines that installs all lug bolts at one.

    • See 10 previous
    • OldManPants OldManPants on Apr 17, 2017

      @APaGttH SpinnyD, thanks for the reality.

  • Jacob_coulter Jacob_coulter on Apr 15, 2017

    I see the car companies having tough times, seems a lot of canaries are dying right now.

    • Highdesertcat Highdesertcat on Apr 15, 2017

      I see a shift in the "tastes" of what buyers will plunk down money for: more SUV/CUVs in the future. Fewer sedans. And pickup trucks will always be in demand as long as gas is cheap.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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