GM is closing its Brownstown battery plant and shifting away from electric vehicles
General Motors is closing its 480,000-square-foot Brownstown Battery Assembly plant next summer.
The short version
- The company is also repurposing a Detroit plant meant for hydrogen fuel cells.
- Slow electric vehicle sales and lost tax credits drove the change.
Why it matters to you. For your business fleet or your personal driveway, this massive pivot means automakers are slowing down their electric push and pivoting back to gas engines as buyers hold onto traditional vehicles.
Check your garage plans because General Motors, the giant Detroit automaker, is shutting down its Brownstown Battery Assembly plant and walking away from major electric vehicle projects. According to Car and Driver, the company will close the leased 480,000-square-foot facility when its lease ends next summer.
The plant currently builds batteries and electric drive units for the expensive Cadillac Celestiq and the Corvette E-Ray, which is now discontinued. Alayna Wilkening reported that Americans simply are not buying electric cars fast enough, and the loss of federal tax credits has soured the deal for shoppers on the fence.
Meanwhile, about 80,000 square feet of the Brownstown space was used for hydrogen energy development following a dissolved partnership with Honda. High costs and low demand killed that project too, leaving the building effectively useless to General Motors. The automaker is also left trying to repurpose a smaller Detroit plant that was meant to house a fuel cell project with Piston Automotive, an auto parts supplier.
General Motors plans to transition its battery work to other nearby facilities, though executives would not say exactly where the lines are moving.
When even the biggest car companies stop building the future to save the present, it is time to check what kind of engine your next work truck will have.
