General Motors has officially earmarked $920 million USD for its Duramax diesel engine operations (DMAX) at its Brookville, Ohio manufacturing plant, securing another next-gen internal combustion engine for its future pickup trucks. In this case, the Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD. The news actually took place last week, yet you may not have heard about it, as GM seemed to keep it low-key. Maybe because there’s a Silverado EV drive happening right now.
Per The Detroit News, GM’s latest DMAX investment will support a 1.1-million square-foot expansion of a Brookville facility, while the Moraine facility, some 30 minutes away, winds down. The expansion will more than quadruple the size of the Brookville facility, which was opened in 2021. GM employees at the Moraine plant will eventually be relocated to the Brookville plant, but specifics were scarce, ahead of UAW labor talks in September.
2024 Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD LTZ towing boat at sunset
The DMAX plant in Moraine, Ohio was previously a joint venture with Isuzu Diesel Services of America Inc. Isuzu divested from the venture as of May 2022.
With this latest Duramax diesel investment, General Motors has now invested some $32.6 billion in its United States manufacturing and parts distribution facilities since 2013. Plus, GM invested another $280 million at its Oshawa Assembly Plant in Ontario for the next generation of full-size light duty pickups. Oshawa is the only GM plant that builds the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and Silverado HD under one roof.
For those keeping tabs, which we are, General Motors has been spending money like it’s going away on refreshing its money printers. These include V8 gas engines, body-on-frame trucks, SUVs, and Duramax diesel engines. The DMAX investment follows a $500+ million USD investment into the GM Arlington Assembly facility in Texas that builds the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, Cadillac Escalade and GMC Yukon, and a $632 million USD investment for the Fort Wayne Assembly truck plant in Indiana that builds the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500. Prior to that, the GM Flint Assembly plant was earmarked for a $1 billion upgrade, which builds the GMC Sierra HD and Chevrolet Silverado HD. And at the beginning of 2023, The General announced a next-generation Small Block V8 engine to the tune of $854 million. These investments total $3.906 billion USD.
While that’s all a lot of money, it pales in comparison to the investments to make Factory Zero ($2 billion USD), new battery plants ($2.6 billion in Lansing, $2 billion in Spring Hill), and renovating the Orion Assembly Plant (another $4 billion). In fact, GM is outspending its recent ICE truck and SUV investments with its future EV investments to the tune of nearly 3:1.
Image copyright Steven Pham, Muscle Cars & Trucks
