General Motors will invest $245 million and add 300 new jobs at its Orion Assembly plant in Michigan to support launching the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle and another yet, undisclosed vehicle.
Investment in Orion totals $962 million since the UAW and GM worked together to reopen the previously idled plant in 2010.
This latest investment comes just seven months after the announcement of a $160-million investment to launch the Chevrolet Bolt EV.
The all-electric Chevrolet Bolt EV was unveiled as a concept at the Detroit Auto Show last January, and then announced a month later in Chicago that a production version will be built at the Orion plant.
The Bolt, scheduled to go on sale sometime in 2017, which means much of the tooling and equipment to be purchased with the $245 million investment would be installed next year.
The Bolt EV is expected to have a range of 200 miles on one full charge and be priced at about $30,000 after a $7,500 federal tax credit.
The latest announcement is a part of the $5.4 billion GM has announced it will invest in U.S. manufacturing over the next three years. Approximately $3.1 billion of the $5.4 billion has been identified, leaving $2.3 billion to be announced by year end.
Since June 2009, GM has announced U.S. facility investment of approximately $17.8 billion. About $12.4 billion of that has come since the 2011 UAW-GM National Agreement. In total, these investments have created 6,250 new jobs and secured the positions of approximately 20,700 others.
