Flint Truck Assembly

Flint Truck Assembly is an automobile factory operated by General Motors in Flint, Michigan. It is the city's only main plant after the closure of Buick City. The Flint factory produces full-size GM pickup trucks.

History

The first factory location was in Flint, Michigan at the corner of Wilcox (now Chevrolet Avenue) and Kearsley Street, now known as "Chevy Commons",[1] along the Flint River, across the street from Kettering University.

The plant, at G 3100 Vanslyke Road, was built in 1947.[2]

In 1953 the first 300 Chevrolet Corvettes were hand built here before production was moved to St. Louis in 1954.

This factory also produced some of the second-generation Chevrolet Bel Airs for the North American market. Encouraged to do a collaboration by the nearby Emily Pottery Company, GM shared some of the colors used for the car, such as sky blue, and as of 2020, the pottery manufacturer still makes ceramics using those colors, albeit in limited quantities.

Production was split between Fisher Body and Chevrolet. The Fisher operations were halted on June 24, 1970, with the entire factory turned over to Chevrolet.

For much of the 1970s, Flint was home to the large Chevrolet K5 Blazer and Chevrolet Suburban, with pickup truck production moved to Pontiac Assembly Center in Pontiac, Michigan in May 1987.

On August 31, 1991, production of the large SUVs was moved to Janesville Assembly in Wisconsin. All laid-off workers returned to the plant on August 10, 1992 as production began. After the closure of Lordstown Van Assembly in 1993, Flint began to produce the former Lordstown Vans. The full-size van division was moved to Wentzville Assembly in Missouri in July 1996, but a new product, the GMT480, began at Flint the previous year. The large commercial General Motors C/K trucks began production in 1997.

GM began production of GMT800 based Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra HD pickup trucks and chassis cabs at the plant in 2005.

The factory's previous product, the GMT900-based trucks, began in February 2007. The factory also produced GM medium-duty trucks, which were phased out in 2009 after GM discontinued that division.[3] In 2010, GM produced the light duty crew cab pickups here.[4] In May 2013, GM began production on the successor to the GMT 900 platform series, the GMT K2XX, for its next generation of light duty crew cab trucks for the 2014 model year.

In May 2016, General Motors invested $900 million for an addition to the Flint Truck Assembly complex. GM has spent an additional $2.8 billion on the complex since 2009.[5]

On October 12, 2017, GM announced it would invest $79 million to bring a new trim shop to the complex.[6]

As of 2020, Flint Truck Assembly currently produces the Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD Regular and Crew Cab models.[7]

Models

Some of the models produced at the plant included:

See also

References
  1. At coordinates 43.0086339°N 83.7099114°W / 43.0086339; -83.7099114 (Chevy Commons)
  2. "Flint Assembly". GM Corporate Newsroom. 25 September 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
  3. "GM Shuts Down Line At Flint Truck For Good". WNEM-TV. July 31, 2009. Archived from the original on August 2, 2009. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  4. Feick, Joel (September 21, 2009). "Flint Assembly gets GM light-duty truck work". ABC 12 News. Archived from the original on February 14, 2010. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
  5. Adams, Dominic (May 11, 2016). "GM says new body shop will allow more truck production at Flint Assembly". The Flint Journal. Retrieved December 9, 2018 – via MLive.com.
  6. Acosta, Roberto (October 12, 2017). "General Motors invests $79M for new trim shop at Flint Assembly plant". The Flint Journal. Retrieved December 9, 2018 – via MLive.com.
  7. https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/company_info/facilities/assembly/flint.html

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