General Motors announces plans to invest nearly $154 million in its Lockport Components plant to prepare it for a new role as the automaker begins a gradual transition to electric vehicle production.
Later this year, renovations will begin on spaces that have been unused for many years, and equipment will be installed for the production of stator modules, a key component in electric vehicle electric motors.
The company also plans to hire up to 230 new employees starting next year through 2026 as GM continues on its planned path to building only electric vehicles.
“There will be a transition. We believe in the all EV future and we are moving and we are preparing for it, moving towards it,” said Gerald Johnson, GM’s executive vice president of global manufacturing and sustainability. “We have a parallel strategy at the moment because we don’t exactly know the pace. We want to provide internal combustion engine and electric vehicle products for the overlap. And then in the next 10 to 15 years, that is our current estimate, we will move from internal combustion engines to purely electric vehicles. But it’s a journey.”
United Auto Workers Local 686 officials estimate they represent about 1,300 active employees at GM’s Lockport operations. When asked if the transition to electric vehicle production was an issue, local president Michael DeLucas expressed confidence in the workforce, calling it highly skilled and a group that knows what needs to be done.
“It won’t be immediate, but that’s the goal GM has set for itself and we’re about to transition from internal combustion engines to electric. And that’s the future, so we’re ready to go there,” DeLucas said. “You know, jobs are jobs. It doesn’t matter if we build kazoos as long as we do what we have to do.”
Among those in attendance celebrating the announcement was Senator Charles Schumer, who cited the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and its $7.5 billion commitment to build a nationwide network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations. He explained that he is also working to boost domestic manufacturing of computer chips and other critical parts that have disrupted car manufacturing. Finally, he expressed hope for investments in GM’s other plants in Tonawanda and Rochester, as well as Ford’s Blasdell plant, saying they are as important parts of the western New York economy as GM’s Lockport plant.
“Over 230 jobs, all well paid, all unionized. In addition, there are hundreds of other part-time jobs from suppliers and additional services,” says Schumer. “When money goes into western New York for well-paying jobs, it not only helps the families who get that money, it helps all the places that they spend that money, the shops and the restaurants and the shops and everything else.” ”
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