GM says light-duty Silverado will be added to new 3rd shift in Oshawa; more R&D slated for Canada

General Motors Canada said it will add a third shift and begin building the light-duty Chevrolet Silverado at its Oshawa Assembly Plant as it firms up more than $1.6 billion (USD) in spending across its Ontario operations.

Top company and government officials announced the mix of fresh and long-planned investments in Oshawa April 4, with the federal and provincial governments pledging matching $207 million contributions to the series of projects, amounting to around a quarter of total costs.

The Oshawa Assembly Plant reopened last November after appearing to close its doors for good in late 2019. The automaker initially committed $1 billion to the retool.

Workers at the plant have already been building the Silverado HD for about five months, but the latest investment will let GM adjust the production line to accommodate the light-duty model of the popular pickup as well. Taking the plant from two to three shifts will create around 800 further jobs, adding to the 1,800 workers it already employed.

“This investment will secure 2,600 jobs here in Oshawa and is a huge win for the people of Durham and Ontario’s auto sector. It shows once again that the cars of the future will be made right here in Ontario, by Ontario workers,” Premier Doug Ford said in a release.

Along with the expanded product mandate in Oshawa, Monday’s announcement locks in funding for an $800 million retool of GM’s CAMI Assembly Plant. The nearly complete overhaul of the Ingersoll, Ont., plant, which has built the Chevrolet Equinox crossover for the past dozen years, was first announced in early 2021 and will make the plant Canada’s first large-scale EV assembly site.

CAMI is scheduled to build its final Equinox on April 29, setting the stage for a six-month retool to start the next day, according to Mike Van Boekel, Local 88 plant chairperson at Unifor, which represents CAMI’s hourly workers. Once back online late this year, the plant is expected to employ roughly 1,500 workers, he said. They will be building new BrightDrop commercial delivery vans GM recently renamed as the Zevo 600 and Zevo 400.

“General Motors’ commitment to its facilities here and its decision to set up the country’s first electric vehicle production facility highlight how Canada is the perfect home to build the cars of today and tomorrow,” François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s minister of innovation, science and industry, said in a release.

The more than $1.6 billion in spending also extends beyond GM’s Ontario assembly operations. The province said “all of GM’s manufacturing and R&D facilities” in Ontario are parceled into the investment, though a full accounting was not immediately available.

Marissa West, GM Canada’s newly appointed president, said the joint company and government investment will secure thousands of jobs and orient the automaker toward EVs.

“This partnership with the governments of Ontario and Canada is helping GM build a more diverse, innovative and sustainable industry and EV supply chain for the future – and we are proud to be doing that right here in Canada,” she said in a release.

The multibillion-dollar spending package is the latest in a string of big-ticket investments in Ontario’s auto sector.

On March 16, Honda Canada announced a $1.1 billion investment in its Alliston, Ont. campus.

This was followed March 23 by the largest single investment in the history of the province’s auto sector when a Stellantis and LG Energy Solution joint venture agreed to spend approximately $5 billion to build the country’s first large-scale battery cell plant in Windsor, Ont. One week later, parts supplier Magna International Inc. added to its Canadian footprint, sharing plans for a $50 million plant that will build battery enclosures in Chatham, Ont.