General Motors will invest $7 billion in four manufacturing facilities in Michigan, establishing the state as the "center" of electric vehicle development and manufacturing.
Much of the money will go toward ramping up production of full-size electric pickup trucks, intensifying a battle with rival Ford Motor for EV supremacy in North America.
GM, like other automakers, is transitioning its product portfolio and manufacturing plants to focus on electric vehicles. To meet its goals of 30 EV product offerings globally by 2025 and 1 million EV sales in the same timeframe, the company is investing more than $30 billion through 2025.
GM said it will pour out $2.6 billion in a new battery factory in the Lansing area and $4 billion in converting its existing Orion Township factory to produce electric pickup trucks.
It will also invest about half a billion dollars in Lansing to upgrade its two existing vehicle assembly plants.
GM calls the move the "single largest investment announcement in GM history," claiming that it will create 4,000 new jobs and keep 1,000 others.
According to economists, this will result in the creation of thousands more ancillary jobs. In Michigan, GM currently employs 50,631 people.
GM and Ford, on the other hand, will have to compete with current leader Tesla, which is set to open a second U.S. plant in Austin, Texas, and is on track to sell over 1 million electric vehicles globally by 2022.
By late 2024, GM's Detroit-Hamtramck and Orion Township plants will be able to produce over 600,000 electric trucks per year, with three additional plants in Tennessee, Ontario, and Mexico bringing the company's total North American EV production capacity to over a million units by late 2025.
When the plant is fully operational, the investment is expected to create over 2,350 new jobs at Orion and retain about 1,000 existing jobs. The new jobs at Orion are expected to be filled by a mix of GM transferees and new hires, according to the automaker.
Ford announced in January that it will have the capacity to produce 600,000 electric vehicles annually within 24 months, including 150,000 F-150 Lightning pickup trucks, as it aims to become "the clear No. 2 electric vehicle maker in North America" behind Tesla.
State and local incentive packages GM received aided the company's major investments. Michigan lawmakers scrambled to put together a $1 billion economic development package after losing out on a $11.4 billion investment from Ford for electric vehicles.
