GM Confirms $175 Million for Chevy Camaro in Michigan

General Motors confirms today plans to invest $175 million at its Lansing, MI, Grand River assembly plant to support production of the redesigned Chevrolet Camaro, and will call back 500 workers to resume a second shift at the facility in late summer.

The outlay will cover expenses for new tooling and equipment, which includes three new paint systems for Camaro-specific colors and the installation of two robotic framers to permit better dimensional control for a more precise drive experience.

“With this investment in tooling and equipment, we will continue to do our part to build on the high-quality reputation of this iconic car,” GM North American Manufacturing Manager Scott Whybrew says in a statement.

GM laid off the Lansing workers late last year due to flagging demand for Cadillac products built at the facility. The layoffs were expected to be brief, because the automaker had announced in 2012 plans to move output of the sixth-generation Camaro to Lansing from its Oshawa, ON, Canada, assembly plant. The move was seen accommodating the sports coupe’s use of Cadillac’s Zeta rear-wheel-drive architecture.

It remains unclear whether GM plans a replacement product for Oshawa, which will lose an estimated 1,000 jobs with the production shift.

The investment at Lansing comes on the heels of $2.8 billion in planned U.S. manufacturing facilities expenditures announced by GM in recent weeks. The automaker said on April 30 it would invest a total of $5.4 billion in the region for manufacturing site updates over the next three years.

The lighter, more powerful ’16 Camaro was unveiled earlier this month in Detroit. A sales leader in its segment for five straight years until a new Mustang knocked it from its perch in 2015, the redesigned model is expected to appeal to current enthusiasts and bring a new buyer into the fold, GM CEO Mary Barra said at the reveal.

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