General Motors has plans to halt production for a combined 21 weeks at three United States full-size pickup plants next year in order to update the facilities to build new-generation models.
The first plant to shut down will be GM’s Fort Wayne assembly plant in Roanoke, Indiana, which will sit idle for nine weeks during the period of January to October, GM spokesman Chris Lee told Automotive News. Next up will be the Flint, Michigan factory, which will sit idle for seven weeks from June to November. Finally, the assembly line at the Arlington, Texas plant will grind to a halt for five weeks from June to December.
GM’s full-size vehicle plant in Silao, Mexico will also be idled for a period the automaker will determine after January 1.
Total production capacity for GM’s pickup plants will fall from a normal level of about 780,000 units to about 640,000 units next year. However, even with the output decrease, GM is unlikely to suffer from a shortage of full-size pickups: the automaker expects its year-end inventory to stand at about 200,000 trucks.
The next-generation pickups are expected to arrive in 2013.
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1.’GM plans 21…’ view
