GM Adding Two Shifts At Michigan Plants

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Given the disparity between the U.S. and Canadian auto industries, it’s not surprising that Friday started with news of a shift dropped at Fiat Chrysler’s Windsor, Ontario minivan plant and ends with two more added at General Motors facilities just across the border.

GM said today that a shift each will be added to its two Lansing, Michigan assembly plants; one to support a brace of new sedans (this could be the last time anyone writes such a statement), the other to support — what else? — crossover production.

Lansing Grand River Assembly stands to attract another 400 employees to help ramp up production of the Cadillac CT4 and CT5 sedans. The plant’s second shift comes on in the second quarter of the year.

At GM’s Lansing Delta Township Assembly, the Chevrolet Traverse/Buick Enclave line adds a third shift of 800 workers on the same timetable as LGR. Both plants were the recipient of cash infusions topping $200 million over the past couple of years.

For GM’s sake, one hopes the CT4 and CT5 perform better than the incredibly shrinking ATS and CTS that came before. As for the Traverse and Enclave, neither model shows any contraction in the previous year. Despite weathering a fourth-quarter slump, Traverse sales rose an infinitesimal 0.4 percent in 2019, earning the full-size crossover its best annual volume in its 11-year history.

The Enclave, despite selling in significantly smaller numbers than its bowtie brother, fared better in 2019, with volume up 3 percent. That’s the best showing of the model’s current generation, though the previous-gen Enclave regularly topped 2019’s tally. In fact, it did so from 2010 to 2016.

As for the first two months of 2020, GM’s quarterly reporting practices keep us from enjoying the answer to this sales query. Cleary, neither model tanked.

[Image: General Motors]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Jfk-usaf Jfk-usaf on Mar 02, 2020

    People want quality. GM hasn't figured that out yet. Sit in a $30k something CUV from a Hyundai or Toyota then make your way over to a GM dealer and sit in one at the same price point. You'll immediately see the difference. Look at the performance specs on their engines. Their new Cadillac SUV that looks so much like a Volvo XC90 has two more cylinders and somehow has like 40 less HP and even less Tq. Make a good compelling product and people will buy it from you... Check the new interior of their newly redesigned trucks. doesn't hold a candle to the new Ram let alone the segment leader F-150. Try harder, hire the correct people...

  • Jfk-usaf Jfk-usaf on Mar 02, 2020

    People want quality. GM hasn't figured that out yet. Sit in a $30k something CUV from a Hyundai or Toyota then make your way over to a GM dealer and sit in one at the same price point. You'll immediately see the difference. Look at the performance specs on their engines. Their new Cadillac SUV that looks so much like a Volvo XC90 has two more cylinders and somehow has like 40 less HP and even less Tq. Make a good compelling product and people will buy it from you... Check the new interior of their newly redesigned trucks. doesn't hold a candle to the new Ram let alone the segment leader F-150. Try harder, hire the correct people...

    • See 2 previous
    • DenverMike DenverMike on Mar 02, 2020

      @highdesertcat There's no point in "quality". Everyone at GM knows they wont be working for GM soon, one way or another, Execs to Mop Squeezers.

  • 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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