Dive Brief:
- General Motors plans to invest $920 million to quadruple the size of its DMAX engine production plant Brookville, Ohio, VP of North American Manufacturing Mike Trevorrow announced at the facility Friday.
- The expansion will bolster production of internal combustion engines for use in the automaker’s heavy-duty trucks, which saw its largest YoY improvement in market share in 2022.
- Construction on the 1.1 million square-foot addition should start immediately, which Trevorrow told employees “shouldn’t come as a surprise ... I think we’re already starting to move dirt.”
Dive Insight:
GM is investing in its heavy-duty trucks portfolio after the automaker saw a surge in demand last year.
“The large DMAX expansion will help us get more trucks to our customers,” Trevorrow said. “The more motors we can get, the more vehicles we can build.”
The automaker’s sales jumped 38% to nearly 288,000 trucks in 2022. Earlier in June, GM announced plans to spend over $1 billion outfitting two of its Michigan plants for production of its next-generation, heavy-duty pickups.
The DMAX expansion is GM’s third major investment in Ohio over the last 10 months, Trevorrow said. This includes $760 million into its Toledo operations for EV drive units and $55 million in its Defiance, Ohio, site to build block castings for its V-8 engine.
“This investment plays a critical role in GM’s growth strategy and balances our popular gas and diesel-powered trucks with our new generation of EV,” Trevorrow said.
