Latest news with #GeneralMotorsCo.
American Military News
6 days ago
- Automotive
- American Military News
GM invests $888 million to make engines at New York plant
General Motors Co. is pouring $888 million into a plant near Buffalo, New York, to make V-8 engines used in full-size SUVs and trucks, the company said Tuesday. The capital infusion into Tonawanda Propulsion will pay for new machinery, equipment, tools and renovations as the plant gears up to start making the next generation of V-8 engines in 2027. The announcement comes as GM grapples with pressure from President Donald Trump to increase U.S. manufacturing or pay hefty import taxes has imposed on vehicles and auto parts made outside of the United States. 'Our significant investments in GM's Tonawanda Propulsion plant show our commitment to strengthening American manufacturing and supporting jobs in the U.S.,' CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. 'GM's Buffalo plant has been in operation for 87 years and is continuing to innovate the engines we build there to make them more fuel efficient and higher performing, which will help us deliver world-class trucks and SUVs to our customers for years to come.' The company invested $70 million in the plant in 2020 as part of an effort to ramp up production of Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. Tonawanda is the second GM propulsion plant to make sixth generation V-8 engines. The automaker in 2023 spent another $500 million to get its Flint Engine plant ready to make engines that the company says will be 'stronger performance than today's engines while benefiting fuel economy and reducing emissions,' citing new combustion and thermal management innovations. 'This investment marks an exciting new chapter for our plant,' said Tara Wasik, plant director at Tonawanda. 'For generations, our team has demonstrated its commitment to manufacturing excellence. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue supporting the Western New York community and steadfast in our mission to deliver world-class propulsion systems to our customers.' A Detroit News request for comment to the United Auto Workers local president was not immediately returned Tuesday. ___ © 2025 Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Miami Herald
7 days ago
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
GM invests $888 million to make engines at New York plant
General Motors Co. is pouring $888 million into a plant near Buffalo, New York, to make V-8 engines used in full-size SUVs and trucks, the company said Tuesday. The capital infusion into Tonawanda Propulsion will pay for new machinery, equipment, tools and renovations as the plant gears up to start making the next generation of V-8 engines in 2027. The announcement comes as GM grapples with pressure from President Donald Trump to increase U.S. manufacturing or pay hefty import taxes has imposed on vehicles and auto parts made outside of the United States. "Our significant investments in GM's Tonawanda Propulsion plant show our commitment to strengthening American manufacturing and supporting jobs in the U.S.," CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. "GM's Buffalo plant has been in operation for 87 years and is continuing to innovate the engines we build there to make them more fuel efficient and higher performing, which will help us deliver world-class trucks and SUVs to our customers for years to come." The company invested $70 million in the plant in 2020 as part of an effort to ramp up production of Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. Tonawanda is the second GM propulsion plant to make sixth generation V-8 engines. The automaker in 2023 spent another $500 million to get its Flint Engine plant ready to make engines that the company says will be "stronger performance than today's engines while benefiting fuel economy and reducing emissions," citing new combustion and thermal management innovations. "This investment marks an exciting new chapter for our plant," said Tara Wasik, plant director at Tonawanda. "For generations, our team has demonstrated its commitment to manufacturing excellence. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue supporting the Western New York community and steadfast in our mission to deliver world-class propulsion systems to our customers." A Detroit News request for comment to the United Auto Workers local president was not immediately returned Tuesday. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Miami Herald
17-05-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Daniel Howes: How GOP reverse in auto policy speeds rise of empowered China
Rarely has Ronald Reagan's tongue-in-cheek aphorism "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" proven more apt than in today's auto industry, whipsawed between the opposing worldviews of two presidential administrations, their we-know-best policies and reality. President Donald Trump is now calling the automotive policy shots, and they look nothing like the climate-focused flood of federal programs fielded by the Biden administration to electrify the auto industry over the past four years. Instead, new Trump policy advanced in the House budget bill this week threatens to throw pretty much all of it in reverse, whatever the costly implications. That's the point, of course: Joe Biden's bid to leverage post-COVID government spending to build a battery industry, to bolster green manufacturing, to create thousands of jobs, to nurture a nascent auto tech sector, to counter Chinese ascendancy in EV spaces all combined to reshape the arc of capital investment in the United States by Detroit's automakers and their foreign rivals. Until they don't. Now, much of it is in question, along with the multi-billion-dollar product bets made by industry players here and abroad. They expected larger numbers of Americans and Europeans to embrace electrified rides more readily, despite range fears, insufficient charging stations, long charging cycles and anti-EV haranguing in the United States aimed at half the country. Much of the industry got it wrong. Too many pesky consumers making up their own minds didn't cooperate, even as companies like Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. invested billions in EV and battery plants armed with the assurance of federal support - until Biden left the race, Kamala Harris lost and Trump's GOP Congress moved to change course. So here we are, on the precipice of the most abrupt federal automotive policy changes since the Oil Shocks of the 1970s and '80s shook Detroit to its core and created opportunity for foreign competition, then chiefly from Japan. That didn't end well, as this town knows better than most, and new federal policy effectively aims to cede competitive ground to Chinese rivals whose culture measures "long-term" in millennia. The House Republican draft budget plan would dump federal tailpipe emissions standards, cut $7,500 tax credits for EVs, claw back uncommitted tax dollars earmarked for clean vehicle manufacturing, and more. It would repeal Production Tax Credits come 2031, a necessary tool for companies like Ford to make new U.S. investments. And when combined with Trump's auto tariffs, it's enough to redirect the trajectory of an industry not long ago rushing to realize a fully electrified future. "Walking away from that? Taking the policy away that incentivizes that?" says Glenn Stevens, executive director of MichAuto, the Detroit Regional Chamber's auto unit. "That is backward thinking. Otherwise, the hometown teams get more niche-oriented. And we don't want that." But that might be what the country gets from the auto policy whipsaw: a one-way ticket to second class in the next automotive century. China is methodically building a vertical electric-vehicle ecosystem that it controls - batteries, minerals, battery packs, software, electric motors that can be assembled into affordable packages already claiming EV share in markets outside the United States and Canada. Here at home? In an industry rife worldwide with government involvement, the automakers' alleged friends in Washington keep changing the rules. They dangle incentives to influence investment decisions before they or their successors withdraw them. They use federal tax laws to encourage the purchase and use of vehicles with "alternative" powertrains before moving to gut such policies. They encourage Detroit to play the EV game and offer tools to help, only to cede (as Trump did on the campaign trail in Flint) the space to China. "Why are we making a product that they dominate?" Trump said at the time. China is "going to dominate. You will not have a car industry left, not even a little bit of a car industry." Yes, the government is here to "help" the industry. Fat chance, given the sharply opposing world views that motivate and inform auto policy-making in today's Republican and Democratic parties. Consensus? There is little of it around the government's role in today's auto industry, which is ironic considering the industry is arguably the most regulated in the country. Meantime, leading voices in the industry are choosing to lay low as the proposed GOP budget makes its way through Congress and automakers await more clarity on the tariff regime that eats daily at their top and bottom lines. Even worse, the only trade deal offering an early peek into auto industry issues - Trump's agreement with the United Kingdom - treats British vehicles coming into the United States more favorably than Detroit-built vehicles coming from Canada under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. If that sounds fishy, that's because it is. But it's not new. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Korea Herald
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- Korea Herald
GM Korea CEO visits Changwon plant amid US tariff-related exit concerns
The chief executive officer of GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of General Motors Co., has visited the automaker's Changwon plant to encourage employees amid growing concerns over a potential withdrawal driven by shifting US tariff policies, the company said Friday. GM Korea CEO Hector Villarreal visited the plant, located 298 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Thursday to meet with employees and reinforce on-site management, the company said in a press release. Speculations over GM's possible exit from South Korea have been mounting following the imposition of a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles in the United States since April, along with the automaker's lack of new models and sluggish sales. GM Korea ships about 85 percent of its exports to America. The Detroit-based automaker operates two plants in South Korea: one in Bupyeong, just west of Seoul, and another in Changwon. The Bupyeong plant produces the Trailblazer sport utility vehicle, while the Changwon factory manufactures the Trax Crossover for both domestic sales and exports. In the January–April period, GM Korea's sales fell 9.1 percent to 154,161 vehicles, down from 169,638 units a year earlier. (Yonhap)
Calgary Herald
15-05-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Canada's new tariffs on U.S. drop to 'nearly zero' with exemptions: Oxford Economics
Article content Canada has effectively suspended almost all of its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products, tamping down inflation risks and improving its growth outlook, according to Oxford Economics. Article content The government imposed new import taxes of 25% on about $60 billion of U.S.-made goods in March in response to the first round of tariffs from the Trump administration. Canada also retaliated against U.S. auto tariffs in early April by putting its own levies on U.S. vehicles. Article content Article content But Prime Minister Mark Carney's government then announced a six-month tariff exemption for products used in Canadian manufacturing, processing and food and beverage packaging, and for items related to health care, public safety and national security. Automakers got a break, too: companies that manufacture in Canada, such as General Motors Co., are allowed to import some vehicles into Canada tariff-free. Article content 'It's a very strategic approach from a new prime minister to really say, 'We're not going to have a retaliation,'' Tony Stillo, Oxford's director of Canada economics, said in an interview. 'It's a strategic play on the government's part to not damage the Canadian economy.' Article content Article content Retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. goods remain, including on food items such as orange juice, alcohol and coffee, as well as clothing and cosmetics. Article content Article content Carney fought and won an election last month by convincing millions of Canadian voters that he was the best candidate to handle a trade war with the U.S., which buys about three-quarters of Canada's exports. Article content Article content The prime minister said Canada will have to strengthen its own domestic economy — partly through government-backed infrastructure and housing initiatives — and seek out new trade and security alliances with other countries. But he's also made it clear that he doesn't necessarily endorse 'dollar for dollar' retaliation, which former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he supported in 'principle.' Article content Article content Oxford still sees the Canadian economy slipping into recession this year, but it upgraded its growth forecast to 0.9% for this year and 0.3% next year. Government spending should soften the blow of the trade war, the firm said. It's forecasting that the rate of inflation will briefly rise to 3% in 2026, but should quickly ease.
