G.M. Making Detroit Plant a Hub of Electric and A.V. Efforts

Legacy automakers are in a race with one another and a slew of start-ups and technology companies to capture growing demand for electric vehicles while also preparing for the advent of autonomous vehicles. G.M.’s Cruise Origin, for example, faces competition from Uber and Waymo, which is a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

At the same time, that fight over an electric future has helped to reinvigorate the American automotive industry.

In 2018, Ford Motor announced that it bought Michigan Central Station in Detroit, and would convert the abandoned office tower and train station — a symbol of the city’s decline — into an urban campus focused on developing businesses that use self-driving cars.

Last year, Fiat Chrysler said it planned to spend $4.5 billion to update several Detroit plants, an investment that it said would create 6,500 jobs and allow the company to start making electric versions of its Jeep models if customer demand increased.

As part of an existing joint venture, G.M. and South Korea’s LG Chem have invested $2.3 billion in a separate plant near Lordstown, Ohio, which will make the battery cells that will power the electric vehicles made at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, the company said. Executives have said that the venture, in the same area where G.M. shuttered a plant last year, would create more than 1,100 jobs, with a groundbreaking expected later this year.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/business/gm-detroit-electric.html?emc=rss&partner=rss