GM kills medium-duty trucks while opening new battery lab

Chevrolet C4500 medium-duty truck at SEMA 2005

Truck plant in Flint, Michigan will close as GM opens new battery lab in its home state

By Alex Ricciuti
June 9, 2009 1:59 PM
Filed Under: American, Corporate/Financial, General Motors, Industry, Production

GM has scrapped another division, this time eliminating its medium-duty truck business.

About 400 workers at the Flint Assembly plant where the Chevy Kodiak and GMC Topkick are produced will be either reassigned or offered buyouts to leave the company. The factory produced 22,000 vehicles last year. Production there will be shut down by the end of July.

The bankrupt Detroit automaker decided to shed the loss-making division after it could not find a buyer. GM had tried to sell the medium-duty division for four years.

"If you can sell it, great, but if you can't, it becomes another cash bleed," says Jim Hall, an automotive analyst at 2953 Analytics in the US, as quoted in the story.

At the same time, GM has unveiled its new Global Battery Systems Lab in its home state. The 33,000 sq-ft (3,065 m2) lab resides within GM's Technical Center in Warren, Michigan and will conduct research and development for batteries and related technology for use in all types of hybrid and electric vehicles that GM is developing. More than 1,000 engineers work at the lab, developing batteries for such models as the Chevy Volt.

Source: detnews.com

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Tags: GM battery lab, Chevy Kodiak and GMC Topkick, Chevy Volt

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Comments

Xanavi23

June 9, 2009 2:54 PM

Believe it or not, these trucks were perfect for contracters and other load bearing workers given how much they can toe and hold, always good to minimize trips, things have changed though. Its too bad.

Renegade

June 9, 2009 3:12 PM

Be careful, keep your eyes open, if your a sleeper GM might kill you too.

Prince_Ash

June 9, 2009 3:15 PM

wow the scary thing is when i visited the US, i saw one of thoes on the roads and it litterally shook the ground as it drove by. when i experianced this i was just in awe at how useless something like this is on city roads.

Xanavi23

June 9, 2009 4:01 PM

Ignorance. They aren't useless, they're made for towing obscene amounts of weight/load. Bricks, Cement, Lumber, Tools, equipment trailers etc etc etc. Its not useless, the reason its being killed is mainly because in North America genuine contracting/domain/house building has slowed to a near crawl thus these trucks CAN'T be used for they're made...cause there's no work.

Renegade

June 9, 2009 4:11 PM

ANd are used by soccer moms to carry their precious kids in it, closest thing to a tank.:p

mldrieling

June 9, 2009 3:37 PM

These trucks are not for personal use. They were designed for Commercial users and for the RV industry. There really is nothing else on the market that competed in this size class. It's a shame that it's being killed off, but, in this economy having only one model in a limited market is not a good plan. I'm sure we will see more trucks like this from International, Navistar, Volvo etc...

Xanavi23

June 9, 2009 4:02 PM

Spot On. While you can have alot of fun with these trucks...by no means are they made for personal use or fun.

xLumino

June 9, 2009 5:05 PM

This truck at the pic dosn't make any sence. Only the US needs such sick cars. Europeans even carry heavy weights, but we have economical transporters therefor

super_car_muscle_man

June 9, 2009 6:32 PM

exactly. the only place where you have cars on this scale with oversized, usually petrol, engines for their purpose is america. in europe and around the world, this is simply not the case until you get to large articluataed trucks. most small to medium sized vans/"trucks" use a 2.0 litre - 2.8 litre economical diesel engines. with small lorrys being no larger than on average 5 litre diesels. economical and sufficient for the task at hand. so unlike some people mentioning its necessary - its not. a smaller, more economical vehical is sufficient. i think GM are doing the right thing by focusing on the future and the environment and moreover, not overdoing it with stupid sized engines.

tom43

June 9, 2009 6:14 PM

If these trucks are so usefull as mentioned above, why is GM closing this loss-making division? Believe it or not, there are better concepts for commercial transportation!

Xanavi23

June 10, 2009 3:30 AM

Because the economy crashed, largely in part to the sub prime mortgage market which in turn means there isn't as much construction going on = these trucks don't need to be used anymore.

HEMI426

June 9, 2009 7:29 PM

Is the Chevrolet C4500 based on a silverado, like the ford f250, f350 and f450 are based on the f150? I don't mind that they stop with this, as long they don't stop building the silverado, tahoe, suburban and camaro

Max_Speed

June 9, 2009 11:24 PM

You're kidding right? The times for Tahoe and Suburban are gone, is time for the fiat and alfas :)

mldrieling

June 10, 2009 2:12 PM

Super Car Muscle Man remember that the roads in America are vastly different than the roads in Europe. I've driven all over the world and American roads are wider, and it's possible to drive for 6 hours and not leave the state (not like in most European countries). I have a camper (recreational vehicle) that weighs over 5000 pounds. A 2.0 liter diesel wouldn't pull it because it's frame would need to be so heavy that the vehicle would never move. Also America taxes diesel fuel to the point that it's more expensive than petrol. That's why diesel vehicles are only used for commercial applications.

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