GM Announces Cuts At Car Assembly Plants In Michigan, Ohio, Canada

Enlarge this image toggle caption Ron Schwane/AP Ron Schwane/AP

Updated at 3:16 p.m. ET

General Motors says it plans to cease production of some models at three vehicle assembly plants in the U.S. and Canada in 2019. It also plans to cut production at two plants in the U.S. that make transmissions. The company said the moves are part of an effort to cut 15 percent of its workforce.

It's part of a major restructuring that will prioritize the company's electric and autonomous vehicle programs.

The decision, announced Monday, will impact Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Detroit, Lordstown Assembly in Warren, Ohio, and Oshawa Assembly in Oshawa, Ontario. Two transmission plants — one in White Marsh, Md., and another in Warren, Mich. — are also set to stop production.

GM says it is maintaining its profitable lineup of SUVs and trucks but will shift away from some of its smaller vehicles that haven't seen strong sales.

The company said it plans to halt production of the Chevrolet Cruze at the Lordstown plant in March. In Detroit, it plans to halt production of the Buick LaCrosse and Chevrolet Volt in March and the Cadillac CT6 and Chevrolet Impala in June. In Ontario, it plans to halt production of the Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac XTS by the final quarter of 2019.

"These tend to be the lower-margin vehicles," GM Chief Financial Officer Dhivya Suryadevara told reporters.

The company says 5,901 hourly employees and 804 salaried employees work at these plants.

"We are announcing the cessation of certain products resulting in a number of plants being without allocated volume to produce," GM spokesperson Julie Huston-Rough told NPR. She added that shutting down or closing a plant is an issue that must be discussed in negotiations with the United Auto Workers.

GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said the company is aiming to cut executive positions by 25 percent, as part of its overall push to cut it workforce. "We will achieve this through a combination of voluntary and involuntary programs," she said.

GM added that it expects to save some $6 billion by the end of 2020.

UAW Vice President Terry Dittes called it a "callous decision" that would be "profoundly damaging to our American workforce."

"The UAW and our members will confront this decision by GM through every legal, contractual and collective bargaining avenue open to our membership," the union said in a statement.

President Trump told reporters, "We don't like it; I believe they'll be opening up something else." He added that he's "not happy" about the announcement.

The communities impacted by the decision are digesting the news.

"They told me straight up there's nothing we can do," Ontario Premier Doug Ford told lawmakers, according to the CBC. He called the decision "absolutely devastating," and the broadcaster reported that thousands of workers at the Ontario plant stopped working Monday.

As Michigan Radio reported, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan called the news "troubling" and said that the union and local officials are "working together to come up with a solution that works for GM and the employees."

Ohio politicians have also responded to the announcement. Arno Hill, the mayor of Lordstown, told NPR that he received a call from GM to inform him of the decision about five minutes before the news was released to the public. "Everybody's very downhearted," he said. "They know they're making a great product ... but they also realize that the car is not selling, and, you know, the key is to get another product for this plant."

"GM owes the community answers on how the rest of the supply chain will be impacted and what consequences its disastrous decision will have on the Mahoning Valley and our state," Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said in a statement. Ohio Gov. John Kasich called it "painful to see this happen to the plant's workers," noting the plant had been working with GM for more than 50 years.

Barra explained that GM is restructuring now, "while the company and the economy are strong, to stay in front of a fast-changing market."

That sentiment, as NPR's Jim Zarroli reported, is paired with a widespread expectation that the economy will slow down next year. He adds that there are also big questions about trade and rising interest rates.

"So there are just a lot of questions about where the market is going, whether sales have peaked," Zarroli reported. "I think GM is just trying to sort of get ahead of what it sees as an inevitable downturn."</s>General Motors is shutting down its plant in Oshawa, Ontario, leaving more than 2,500 employees without a job. Mike Drolet has reaction from workers and their union, Unifor.</s>The Warren Transmission and Baltimore operations General Motors manufacturing plants will both be phased out as part of the company’s bid to “accelerate its transformation for the future.”

The new future of General Motors starts today after the company announced it planned to idle three assembly plants and reduce its salaried workforce by 15 percent as it looks to strengthen its core business and capitalize on significant cost efficiencies. In all, the move should save the company upwards of $6 billion with most of it earmarked for autonomous driving programs and electric vehicle development.

The plant closures have already claimed the Chevrolet Volt, Cruze, and Impala, along with the Buick LaCrosse, while questions remain regarding the future of the Cadillac XTS and CT6 sedans. As a knock-on effect of the assembly plant closures, both Warren Transmission Operations in Warren, Michigan and Baltimore Operations in White Marsh, Maryland are scheduled to close by the time summer 2019 rolls around.

Baltimore, which is responsible for the production of Allison 1000 transmission which is used in 2500 and 3500 versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, will wrap operations by April 1, 2019. Unless General Motors is prepared to source the gearboxes directly from Allison or reestablish production elsewhere, this could point to a new transmission on offer for the upcoming T1 2500/3500 trucks.

Warren Transmission will soldier on until August 1, 2019, when it will cease producing 6-speed transmissions and the Global Front Wheel Electric unit for the Volt. 6-speeds from Warren are currently found in the now discontinued XTS, Impala, and Volt, but it can also be found in the Acadia, and Malibu… models that will soldier on. With the Acadia losing its supply of 6-speed transmissions we could finally see the crossover migrate to GM’s new 9-speed transmission developed in partnership with Ford. The 9-speed already made its debut in the Malibu during 2017, and the 2019 Malibu already replaces the old 6-speed with a CVT.</s>DETROIT - General Motors announced Monday morning that it is shuttering several plants including the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant and the Warren Transmission Operations.

Overall, the company will lay off 14,700 factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles.

The following assembly plants will be idled in 2019:

The following propulsion plants will be idled in 2019:

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said Monday that the news of the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant's future is "troubling"

"This morning I spoke to Mary Barra and she advised me for the first time of the situation at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant. The news is troubling," reads a statement from Duggan. "I have spoken to UAW President Gary Jones and the city's economic development team. They are working together to come up with a solution that works for GM and the employees. We all know there is strong demand for manufacturing space in Detroit and we are willing to work with GM to fill all the available manufacturing space at Poletown with either GM-related entities or other companies."

General Motors also announced Monday that in addition to the previously announced closure of the assembly plant in Gunsan, Korea, the automaker will cease the operations of two additional plants outside North America by the end of 2019.

“The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “We recognize the need to stay in front of changing market conditions and customer preferences to position our company for long-term success.”

The staff reduction includes 8,100 white-collar workers, some of whom will take buyouts and others who will be laid off. Most of the affected factories build cars that won't be sold in the U.S. after next year. They could close or they could get different vehicles to build. They will be part of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union next year.

Here's more from the news release:

Contributing to the cash savings of approximately $6 billion are cost reductions of $4.5 billion and a lower capital expenditure annual run rate of almost $1.5 billion. The actions include:
• None Transforming product development – GM is evolving its global product development workforce and processes to drive world-class levels of engineering in advanced technologies, and to improve quality and speed to market. Resources allocated to electric and autonomous vehicle programs will double in the next two years. Additional actions include:
• None Increasing high-quality component sharing across the portfolio, especially those not visible and perceptible to customers.
• None Expanding the use of virtual tools to lower development time and costs.
• None Optimizing product portfolio – GM has recently invested in newer, highly efficient vehicle architectures, especially in trucks, crossovers and SUVs. GM now intends to prioritize future vehicle investments in its next-generation battery-electric architectures. As the current vehicle portfolio is optimized, it is expected that more than 75 percent of GM’s global sales volume will come from five vehicle architectures by early next decade.
• None Increasing capacity utilization – In the past four years, GM has refocused capital and resources to support the growth of its crossovers, SUVs and trucks, adding shifts and investing $6.6 billion in U.S. plants that have created or maintained 17,600 jobs. With changing customer preferences in the U.S. and in response to market-related volume declines in cars, future products will be allocated to fewer plants next year.

These manufacturing actions are expected to significantly increase capacity utilization. To further enhance business performance, GM will continue working to improve other manufacturing costs, productivity and the competitiveness of wages and benefits.
• None Staffing transformation – The company is transforming its global workforce to ensure it has the right skill sets for today and the future, while driving efficiencies through the utilization of best-in-class tools. Actions are being taken to reduce salaried and salaried contract staff by 15 percent, which includes 25 percent fewer executives to streamline decision making.

Barra added, “These actions will increase the long-term profit and cash generation potential of the company and improve resilience through the cycle.”

GM expects to fund the restructuring costs through a new credit facility that will further improve the company’s strong liquidity position and enhance its financial flexibility.

GM expects to record pre-tax charges of $3.0 billion to $3.8 billion related to these actions, including up to $1.8 billion of non-cash accelerated asset write-downs and pension charges, and up to $2.0 billion of employee-related and other cash-based expenses. The majority of these charges will be considered special for EBIT-adjusted, EPS diluted-adjusted and adjusted automotive free cash flow purposes. The majority of these charges will be incurred in the fourth quarter of 2018 and first quarter of 2019, with some additional costs incurred through the remainder of 2019.

The United Automobile Workers union released the following statement after GM's announcement:

General Motors decision today to stop production at the Lordstown, Ohio, and Hamtramck, Michigan, assembly plants will idle thousands of workers, and will not go unchallenged by the UAW.

This decision will also affect employment at other GM locations including Baltimore, Maryland, and Michigan’s Brownstown and Warren Transmission plants. The UAW and our members will confront this decision by GM through every legal, contractual and collective bargaining avenue open to our membership.

“This callous decision by GM to reduce or cease operations in American plants, while opening or increasing production in Mexico and China plants for sales to American consumers, is, in its implementation, profoundly damaging to our American workforce,” said Terry Dittes, UAW Vice President, Director GM Department. “GM’s production decisions, in light of employee concessions during the economic downturn and a taxpayer bailout from bankruptcy, puts profits before the working families of this country whose personal sacrifices stood with GM during those dark days. These decisions are a slap in the face to the memory and recall of that historical American made bailout.”

GM assembles cars, trucks and crossover vehicles outside of the United States for sales to American consumers. GM currently assembles versions of the full-size Chevy and GMC pickups in Mexico. In addition, the Buick Cascada is assembled in Poland and the Buick Envision is assembled in China only to be imported to the U.S. for American sales.

Recently, GM announced the new Chevy Blazer will also be assembled in Mexico and imported to the United States for American sales.

“We must step away from the anti-worker thinking of seeking simply the lowest labor cost on the planet,” said UAW President Gary Jones. “The practice of circumventing American labor in favor of moving production to nations that tolerate wages less than half of what our American brothers and sisters make, must stop. More importantly, we must understand that these companies, including GM, are no longer in trouble. They are recording annual profits in the tens of billions.”

To that end, the UAW and its membership will do its part to convince GM and all American employers that the American consumer market should support American-made products by building where we buy products. Simply said, American consumers need to be patriotic consumers by joining the UAW in this effort in saying ‘No’ to American companies that choose foreign workers over American workers and imported products over U.S.-made products.

As Dittes stresses, “This has, and always will be, a part of the fabric of the UAW.”

Be informed when making an American company automobile purchase: Examination of the driver-side window near the dashboard displays the Vehicle Identification Number plate (VIN) that identifies where the vehicle was assembled. VIN numbers beginning with “1”, “4” or “5” were assembled in the U.S., “2” were assembled in Canada, “3” were assembled in Mexico. If it begins with the letters J-R, it was assembled in Asia.

“America is only as great as the patriotism practiced within it,” says Jones. "The UAW does not believe that eliminating American jobs, hurting the American economy and devastating families and communities for quick profits, are the principles this country was built on.”</s>General Motors is poised to close factories in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland and Canada, and slash 15 percent of its salaried workforce in a sweeping cost-cutting plan designed to boost its profits.

The Detroit-based automaker said it would end production by the end of 2019 at its Lordstown Assembly plant in northeast Ohio; its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant in southeast Michigan; its Oshawa Assembly plant in Ontario; its Baltimore Operations parts plant; and its Warren Transmission Operations plant in southeast Michigan.

Assembly plants are job juggernauts. GM has about 1,500 employees at the Detroit plant, 1,600 at the Lordstown factory and 2,500 in Oshawa.

The announcement comes ahead of next year's contract talks with the United Auto Workers union, which could potentially lead to decisions to devote vehicles to those facilities.

But there's a serious chance that the plants close for good.

CEO Mary Barra is seeking to reposition GM for a future defined by self-driving cars, ride-sharing networks and electric vehicles.

The plan may signal the demise in the U.S. of several passenger cars that have been struggling, including the Chevrolet Cruze, the Chevrolet Impala and the Cadillac XTS.

The cuts will make GM "lean and agile" as the company aims to "lead in autonomous and lead in electric vehicles," Barra said.

Taken together, the moves will deliver more than $6 billion in additional annual cash flow by the end of 2020, GM said. That includes $4 billion in cost cuts and $1.5 billion in reduced capital expenditures.

GM said it would also close two additional plants outside of North America by the end of 2019. It will also continue with plans to close its plant in Gunsan, South Korea.

The workforce reduction will affect 15 percent of the company's salaried and salaried contract workforce. It's not clear how many of those cuts will be voluntary and how many will take the form of layoffs. GM offered buyouts to 18,000 workers several weeks ago.

The company said it would also have 25 percent fewer executives.</s>DETROIT — General Motors will lay off 14,700 factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles.

The reduction includes 8,100 white-collar workers, some of whom will take buyouts and others who will be laid off. Most of the affected factories build cars that won’t be sold in the U.S. after next year. They could close or they could get different vehicles to build. They will be part of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union next year.

Plants without products include assembly plants in Detroit; Lordstown, Ohio; and Oshawa, Ontario. Also affected are transmission factories in Warren, Michigan, as well as Baltimore.

About 6,000 factory workers could lose jobs in the U.S. and Canada, although some could transfer to truck plants.</s>General Motors is poised to close factories in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland and Canada, kill off several passenger cars and slash 15 percent of its salaried workforce in a sweeping cost-cutting plan designed to boost its profits.

The Detroit-based automaker said it would end production by the end of 2019 at its Lordstown Assembly plant in northeast Ohio; its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant in southeast Michigan; its Oshawa Assembly plant in Ontario; its Baltimore Operations parts plant; and its Warren Transmission Operations plant in southeast Michigan.

Assembly plants are job juggernauts. GM has about 1,500 employees at the Detroit plant, 1,600 at the Lordstown factory and 2,500 in Oshawa.

The announcement comes ahead of next year's contract talks with the United Auto Workers union, which could potentially lead to decisions to devote vehicles to those facilities.

GM's biggest employee union, the United Auto Workers, vowed to fight the plan.

But there's a serious chance that the plants close for good.

More: GM to kill Chevrolet Volt, Cruze, Impala as Americans ditch passenger cars

More: GM offers buyouts to 18,000 salaried workers, says layoffs possible

The company will also discontinue the Chevrolet Cruze, Volt and Impala cars in North America as Americans flock to larger vehicles in the form of crossovers, SUVs and pickups.

CEO Mary Barra is seeking to reposition GM for a future defined by self-driving cars, ride-sharing networks and electric vehicles.

General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra speaks about the financial outlook of the automaker, Jan. 10, 2017, in Detroit. The company issued an optimistic earnings forecast this year based on improved cost efficiencies and continued strong sales in North America and China.

The cuts will make GM "lean and agile" as the company aims to "lead in autonomous and lead in electric vehicles," Barra said.

Taken together, the moves will deliver more than $6 billion in additional annual cash flow by the end of 2020, GM said. That includes $4 billion in cost cuts and $1.5 billion in reduced capital expenditures.

The UAW said it would "confront this decision by GM through every legal, contractual and collective bargaining avenue open to our membership."

It's a "callous decision" to cut American operations about 10 years after the automaker first accepted federal bailout money, UAW GM official Terry Dittes said in a statement.

“GM’s production decisions, in light of employee concessions during the economic downturn and a taxpayer bailout from bankruptcy, puts profits before the working families of this country whose personal sacrifices stood with GM during those dark days," Dittes said. "These decisions are a slap in the face to the memory and recall of that historical American made bailout.”

GM said it would also close two additional plants outside of North America by the end of 2019. It will also continue with plans to close its plant in Gunsan, South Korea.

The workforce reduction will affect 15 percent of the company's salaried and salaried contract workforce. It's not clear how many of those cuts will be voluntary and how many will take the form of layoffs. GM offered buyouts to 18,000 workers several weeks ago.

The company said it would also have 25 percent fewer executives.</s>General Motors will lay off 14,700 factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles.

The reduction includes 8,100 white-collar workers, some of whom will take buyouts and others who will be laid off. Most of the affected factories build cars that won't be sold in the U.S. after next year. They could close or they could get different vehicles to build. They will be part of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union next year.

Plants without products include assembly plants in Detroit; Lordstown, Ohio; and Oshawa, Ontario. Also affected are transmission factories in Warren, Michigan, as well as Baltimore.

About 6,000 factory workers could lose jobs in the U.S. and Canada, although some could transfer to truck plants.

General Motors is closing a Canadian plant at the cost of about 2,500 jobs, but that is apparently just a piece of a much broader, company-wide restructuring that will be announced as early as Monday.

A person briefed on the matter told The Associated Press that the plant being shuttered in Canada is just the beginning as GM prepares for the next economic downturn, shifting trade agreements under the Trump administration, and potential tariffs on imported automobiles.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement hasn't been made public.

In the fall, the Detroit automaker offered buyouts to 18,000 white collar workers, but it has yet to say how many accepted, or if its's close to meeting the staff reduction goals it set to better withstand leaner times.</s>General Motors on Monday said that it will discontinue the Chevrolet Volt, Cruze, and Impala early next year and shutter three assembly plants in the U.S. and Canada as it reduces its workforce and feeds demand for crossover SUVs and pickups rather than sedans.

GM said that the assembly plants it will idle by the end of 2019 include the Lordstown plant near Warren, Ohio, the Detroit-Hamtramck plant in Michigan, and one in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. In a release, GM said that the plants won't be allocated new products, which will spell the end of the line for several sedans in the automaker's portfolio.

GM told Motor Authority that the Volt and Cruze will go out of production in March 2019, while the Impala will end during the fourth quarter of next year. The Buick LaCrosse will end production in March 2019.

In June, GM said that it would invest $175 million into its Lansing, Michigan, assembly plant to build new Cadillac sedans. Production of the CT6 could move there, too. The Cadillac flagship is currently built at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant and its fate is unknown. However, it is unlikely to be dropped as an update has just been implemented for 2019.

GM's crosstown rivals Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles have also consolidated their slow-selling passenger car lineups in favor of more crossover SUVs and pickup trucks.

GM said it would push forward with electric cars and self-driving vehicles as part of its future plans. The automaker also said 75 percent of its future vehicles will come from only five vehicle architectures by early next decade.

Two additional U.S. facilities also will go offline next year: the Baltimore Operations in White Marsh, Maryland, and Warren Transmission Operations in Warren, Michigan. In Baltimore, GM builds electric-car components. The automaker said it will also idle two additional international car production plants next year. South Korean plants may be a prime target after the automaker closed its first Korean plant in May.

In the Monday announcement, GM added it will slash its corporate workforce by 25 percent in a further effort to cut costs inside the automaker. The layoffs come after GM issued a buyout packaged to thousands of salaried workers.

The proposed cuts come ahead of scheduled negotiations with the United Auto Workers union next year that could reshape production plans for hourly workers.

GM said the plant restructuring and layoffs will combine to free up $6 billion by 2020.</s>General Motors Co said on Monday it will cut production of slow-selling models and slash its North American workforce in the face of a stagnant market for traditional gas-powered sedans, shifting more investment to electric and autonomous vehicles.

The announcement is the biggest restructuring in North America for the U.S. No. 1 carmaker since its bankruptcy a decade ago. Its shares rallied 7.6 percent to $38.66.

GM plans to halt production next year at three assembly plants – Lordstown, Ohio, Hamtramck, Michigan, and Oshawa, Ontario. The company also plans to stop building several models now assembled at those plants, including the Chevrolet Cruze, the Cadillac CT6 and the Buick LaCrosse. The Cruze compact car will be discontinued in the U.S. market in 2019.

Plants in Baltimore, Maryland, and Warren, Michigan that assemble powertrain components will have no products assigned to them after 2019 and thus are at risk of closure, the company said. It will also close two factories outside North America, but did not identify them.

“We are right-sizing capacity for the realities of the marketplace,” Chief Executive Mary Barra said, adding that the cuts were prompted by auto industry changes. Barra said the company will double resources dedicated to electric and self-driving vehicles over the next two years.

The UAW union vowed to “confront this decision by GM through every legal, contractual and collective bargaining avenue open to our membership.”

“General Motors decision today to stop production at the Lordstown, Ohio, and Hamtramck, Michigan, assembly plants will idle thousands of workers, and will not go unchallenged by the UAW,” Terry Dittes, UAW Vice President in charge of negotiations with GM, said.

What can we learn from business legend Carlos Ghosn’s downfall?

In a statement, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan described the news as “troubling” and said that the city’s economic development team and the UAW union are “working together to come up with a solution that works for GM and the employees”.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke with Barra and expressed “deep disappointment”.

GM said it will take pre-tax charges of US$3 billion to US$3.8 billion to pay for the cutbacks, but expects the actions to improve annual free cash flow by US$6 billion by the end of 2020.

Its North American salaried workforce, including engineers and executives, will shrink by 15 percent, or about 8,000 jobs. The company said it will cut executive ranks by 25 per cent to “streamline decision making.”

Even as GM is moving to lay off salaried staff, the company is hiring. At GM’s Detroit headquarters on Monday, there were signs directing people to a “New Hire Orientation” meeting.

Barra said GM can reduce annual capital spending by US$1.5 billion and increase investment in electric and autonomous vehicles and connected vehicle technology because it has largely completed investing in new generations of trucks and sport utility vehicles.

Some 75 percent of its global sales will come from just five vehicle architectures by the early 2020s.

It plans to reduce annual capital spending to US$7 billion by 2020 from an average of US$8.5 billion a year during the 2017-2019 period.

Cost pressures on GM and other carmakers and suppliers have increased as demand waned for traditional sedans. The company has said tariffs on imported steel, imposed earlier this year by the Trump administration, have cost it US$1 billion.

Barra did not link Monday’s cuts to tariff pressures, but said trade costs are among the “headwinds” GM has to face as it deals with broader technology change and market shifts.

Trump’s tariffs set to rain on Chinese carmakers’ US parade

With U.S. car sales lagging, several car plants have fallen to just one shift, including its Hamtramck and Lordstown, assembly plant.

A rule of thumb for the automotive industry is that if a plant is running below 80 percent of production capacity, it is losing money. GM has several plants running well below that. Consultancy LMC estimates that Lordstown will operate at just 31 percent of production capacity in 2018.

Barra said the carmaker is running at about 70 percent capacity utilisation in North America, and the company will provide an update on how the latest moves will improve utilisation in January.

“We need to make sure that we are well positioned to compete, not just over the next few years, but well beyond,” she said.

Unlike its plants making passenger cars, many of GM’s plants producing its higher-margin trucks and SUVs are running on three shifts, with some running six and sometimes seven days a week to keep up with demand.

Rivals Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV have both curtailed U.S. car production. Ford said in April it planned to stop building nearly all cars in North America.

The industrywide slowdown in passenger car sales started to pick up steam in 2017.

The shift by U.S. consumer preferences have been away from passenger cars to larger, more comfortable SUVs and pickup trucks has been swift and severe, leaving carmakers scrambling to readjust.

US carmakers are schooling Trump on how trade works

As recently as 2012, passenger cars made up more than 50 percent of all U.S. new vehicle sales. Through the first nine months of 2018, that had fallen to a little over 31 percent.

While industry-wide passenger car sales were down 13.2 percent through the first nine months of the year, pickup truck and SUV sales rose 8.3 percent. As well as being roomier, the fuel economy on SUVs and crossovers has improved significantly.

Sales of Cruze, built at Lordstown, fell 27 percent through September 2018. Impala, which is built at Oshawa and Hamtramck, was down 13 percent. Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CT6, which are built at Hamtramck, were down 14 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
General Motors announces it will cease production at the Oshawa Car Assembly in Oshawa, Lordstown Assembly in Lordstown, Ohio, and the Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly in Detroit. Two transmission plants, the Baltimore Transmission in Baltimore and the Warren Transmission in Warren, Michigan, are also expected to stop production.