Today, General Motors Co. in Detroit will welcome President Joe Biden, international UAW and UAW Local 22 leadership, plant employees, and more for the grand opening of the Factory ZERO EV assembly plant on Grand Boulevard in Detroit.
Production is now set to begin at the former Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant less than two years after the company announced a $2.2 billion investment to fully renovate the facility to build a variety of all-electric trucks and SUVs.
“GM’s U.S. manufacturing expertise is key to achieving our all-electric future,” says Mary Barra, chair and CEO of GM. “This is a monumental day for the entire GM team. We retooled Factory ZERO with the best, most advanced technology in the world to build the highest quality electric vehicles for our customers.”
The factory will be home to the production of the 2022 GMC Hummer EV Pickup, 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV, Chevrolet Silverado EV, and the Cruise Origin, an all-electric, self-driving, shared vehicle. When fully operational, it will employ more than 2,200 people.
All Factory ZERO EVs will be built on GM’s Ultium platform, the heart of the company’s EV product strategy. The Ultium Platform encompasses a common vehicle architecture and propulsion components like battery cells, modules, packs, drive units, EV motors and integrated power electronics.
Through the Ultium platform, GM will realize a strategic value chain shift across its network of vehicle assembly plants as the company is able to commonize and streamline machinery, tooling, and assembly processes. This flexibility enables lower capital investments and greater efficiencies as additional assembly plant transformations occur.
Along with the capital advantages, GM’s will renovate its existing network of manufacturing facilities during the EV transition to save time. An accelerated launch and production start allow the company to get EVs to customers sooner.
Pre-production of the 2022 GMC Hummer EV pickups began at Factory ZERO this fall and the first GMC Hummer EVs are on track to be delivered to customers by the end of the year.
“To meet our ambitious EV transition, GM’s North American EV vehicle assembly capacity will reach 20 percent by 2025, and then 50 percent by 2030,” says Gerald Johnson, executive vice president of global manufacturing and sustainability at GM. “Factory ZERO serves as a model for transitions that will take place at other factories around the world in the coming years.”
GM’s Factory ZERO team is backed by more than 90,000 industrial problem solvers on GM’s global manufacturing team. They are managing an average of 11 major launches each year, both internal combustion engine and EV. As a result, GM can produce an EV in the same number of working hours it takes to build an ICE vehicle.
“Our people are GM’s true competitive advantage — an advantage you simply can’t buy or quickly build,” says Johnson. “At Factory ZERO, we are building on that experience with the training that will deliver EV and AV launch success with safety, quality and speed while continuing to drive down cost per unit.”
Factory ZERO highlights include:
- GM reused or recycled almost every material that came out of the facility during conversion, including crushed concrete from the old plant floor, which was repurposed for temporary roads around the facility.
- Storm water will be recycled to reduce discharge costs and offset the cost of potable water.
- Treated storm water will be used in cooling towers and the plant’s fire suppression system.
- The site features a 30-kilowatt solar carport and 516-kW ground-mounted photovoltaic solar array from DTE Energy.
- Factory ZERO’s site has a 16.5-acre wildlife habitat that is home to monarch butterflies, foxes, and turkeys.
