GM Invests $174 Million in New Stamping Facility

General Motors announced today that it will invest $174 million in a new stamping facility as part of its Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant.

Body panels for the Cadillac ATS compact sedan, CTS mid-size and an unnamed future product will all take place at the new facility that the company expects to be operational in 2016 to bring $14 million in savings annually by making its material handling more efficient. Since 2009 and including today’s announcement, GM says it has invested more than $530 million into its Lansing facility.

“Lansing Grand River Assembly is known for the high quality of its work and the flexible manufacturing that has been a trademark since it opened,” said GM North America manufacturing manager christine Sitek. “Today’s announcement demonstrates GM’s commitment to strengthening key plant capabilities related to quality and efficiency.”

The company plans to move Camaro production away from its Oshawa, Canada flex plant for the new generation expected to start arriving sometime next year. Details on the new future model are hazy, but Cadillac is currently developing a new rear-wheel drive luxury flagship sedan thought to be previewed in the Elmiraj concept revealed last year at Pebble Beach.

The company’s rear-wheel drive flagship sedan is expected to ride on the Omega II platform that could share production lines with the ATS, CTS and Camaro that are all currently or slated to be underpinned by GM’s lightweight Alpha platform. Given that, the announcement of the unnamed model might be a signal that Cadillac’s flagship is drawing even closer to reaching production.

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