General Motors (GM) is planning to invest $918 million into four U.S. plants dedicated to building V-8 gas engines and electric vehicle (EV) components, according to an announcement made on Friday.
The news comes after GM shared plans to begin selling fully-electric models only by 2035, showing that the automaker will continue needing to balance efforts between the emerging EV sector and gas engines for traditional and performance vehicles.
About $579 million from the investment will go toward outfitting the automaker’s Flint, Michigan factory to continue developing small-block V-8 gas engines, set to begin immediately.
GM declined to share further details on the engines, though it’s noteworthy that the automaker’s last new family of V-8 engines was released in 2013.
“Today we are announcing significant investments to strengthen our industry-leading lineup of full-size pickups and SUVs by preparing four U.S. facilities to build GM’s sixth generation Small Block V-8 engine,” said Gerald Johnson, GM executive vice president of Global Manufacturing and Sustainability, in a statement. “These investments, coupled with the hard work and dedication of our team members in Flint, Bay City, Rochester and Defiance, enable us to build world-class products for our customers and provide job security at these plants for years to come.”
The rest of the investment will be dedicated to other parts operations at factory locations in Michigan, Ohio and New York, including gas camshafts, manifolds and future plans for EV castings.
GM’s Defiance Operations in Ohio will get $55 million for the Defiance facility. $8 million will be invested to build a casting development cell for castings to support future EV strategies.
In September, GM announced plans to invest around $491 million into its Marion, Indiana factory to help support EV production, including plans to add a new 6,000-square-foot addition and renovate the existing structure.
Last month, GM employees at the company’s Warren, Ohio plant voted to unionize with the United Auto Workers labor union.
