AP: GM to build small car in Michigan
DETROIT -- Michigan has won the high-stakes competition with two other states to build General Motors' next-generation subcompact car, a person briefed on the decision said Thursday.
The announcement that the car will be built at a retooled midsize car factory in Orion Township near Pontiac, Mich., will come Friday, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public. It will save about 1,200 jobs at the factory, which had been slated to shut down later this year.
GM spokeswoman Sherrie Childers Arb declined to comment on whether GM had made a decision.
The Orion Township plant, about 40 miles north of Detroit, had been in competition with GM factories in Janesville, Wis., and Spring Hill, Tenn., to build the car.
The Orion plant now makes the Pontiac G6 and Chevrolet Malibu midsize cars, which also are made at a factory in Kansas City, Kan.
GM announced when it filed for bankruptcy protection June 1 that the Orion and Spring Hill plants would go on standby status later this year, meaning workers could be called back if the company needs to increase production. The Janesville plant already closed in April.
GM also is likely to announce that its Pontiac parts stamping plant will be retooled to make parts for the new car, based on the Chevrolet Spark. About 1,000 jobs could be saved there.
Michigan, Wisconsin and Tennessee all offered incentive packages to GM in an effort to lure the plant.
Childers Arb said earlier this week that a team of GM officials was working on the site selection and the company plans to make a decision by June 30.
The automaker had said in documents submitted to Congress that it planned to produce up to 51,000 subcompacts per year in China and ship them to the U.S. starting in 2011.
But in May, after the United Auto Workers union approved contract concessions, the company said it would build the three-door hatchback in the U.S. The Spark has a small turbocharged four-cylinder engine and is about the size of a Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris. It is set to go on sale in Europe next year.
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