Chevy Keeping Small Car Production in the US

The latest news for Chevy is that General Motors will keep its new subcompact car production in the US.  GM originally planned to make the new car in China, basing it on the Chevrolet Spark set for sale next year in Europe. But in May, GM agreed to make the car in the United States in exchange for UAW concessions in advance of the automaker’s June 1 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in New York. Although two of GM’s factories will still close, the automaker’s Orion Township, Mich. Factory will be retooled and will make as many as 160,000 small and compact vehicles a year on two shifts. The Spring Hill and Janesville plants, which had been candidates for the small car, now face the prospect of indefinite idling.  Stamping for the new car will take place in Pontiac, Mich., GM said in a statement. The small car, which GM said it plans to start producing in 2011, will save about 1,200 jobs in Orion and 200 in Pontiac.

The Orion Township plant currently makes the Chevy Malibu and the Pontiac G6 sedans and was scheduled for standby idling in September. GM is phasing out its Pontiac brand by the end of 2010, and the automaker also builds the Malibu in Kansas, City, Kan.

GM’s plant location for the car became politicized because the U.S. government is slated to own 60 percent of GM once the company emerges from bankruptcy protection. Last week, the Michigan congressional delegation launched an all-out lobbying effort to land the plant.