Reneging on a previous statement, General Motors will end its 25-year joint-venture with Toyota at the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant in California. The NUMMI plant currently produces the Pontiac Vibe, but the five-door wagon will cease production this August.
GM’s relationship with the NUMMI plant came in question after it announced the demise of the Pontiac brand earlier this year, but the Detroit automaker claimed it was not “backing away†from the joint-venture plant. However, GM’s 50 percent ownership of the plant will be lumped together with the ‘old’ GM in bankruptcy court.
The Vibe is the only GM product produced at the NUMMI plant. The California factory also produces the Toyota Matrix , Corolla and Tacoma pickup truck.
“After extensive analysis, GM and Toyota could not reach an agreement on a future product plan that made sense for all parties,” Troy Clarke, GM’s president of North American operations, said in statement. “Accordingly, NUMMI will end production of vehicles for GM in August, and there are no future GM vehicles planned for the joint venture at this time.â€
Clarke’s statement is a reversal on GM’s previous stance. “We’re clearly not backing away from our partnership at NUMMI. There’s no issue of us backing away from NUMMI,†GM spokesman Jim Hopson told Automotive News in April.
