GM Earmarks $63 Million for Michigan Assembly Plant

General Motors will invest $63 million to expand a Michigan assembly plant that makes its popular large CUVs, the first piece of a $300 million outlay the automaker plans for its home state.

GM says the expansion will add nearly 263,000 sq.-ft. (24,433 sq.-m) to the automaker’s Lansing Delta Twp. facility, which builds the Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia. The plant, GM’s newest in North America at nine years old, already covers 3.4 million sq.-ft. (315,879 sq.-m).

The plant’s general assembly area will add 28,000 sq.-ft. (2,601 sq.-m), and the body shop will take on another 181,000 sq.-ft. (16,815 sq.-m) to accommodate a new generation of robotics and lean flexible tooling. The paint shop will grow by 54,000 sq.-ft. (5,016 sq.-m) to allow the use of improved sealers and coatings to beef up corrosion resistance, GM says.

“Today’s announcement is the latest example of our ongoing efforts to strengthen key plant capabilities,” GM North America Manufacturing Vice President Cathy Clegg says in a statement.

GM CEO Mary Barra revealed the Michigan investment in a speech Tuesday in Detroit, and the Lansing plant is the first recipient. The automaker reportedly received a 12-year tax incentive from the township and nearby city of Lansing to clear the way for the investment.

GM does not give a timetable for the refurbishing, but in all likelihood the updates will prep the plant for output in 2017 of the redesigned ’18 Traverse and Enclave. A WardsAuto forecast shows Acadia production shifting to GM’s Spring Hill, TN, assembly plant in 2016 as a ’17 model.

The Traverse, Enclave and Acadia are three of GM’s best-sellers. Since launching in 2006, the 7- and 8-passenger CUVs have accounted for 1.6 million U.S. sales. So far this year, the trio has drawn 189,354 buyers, up a fraction from 2013.

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