GM Cranks Up Chevy Cruze Production
February 23, 2010
Optimistic that its upcoming Chevrolet Cruze small car will be a hit, General Motors 
announced Tuesday that it is cranking up production at its Lordstown, Ohio, plant by adding a third shift and hiring 1,200 workers.
The 2011 Chevrolet Cruze goes on sale in the third quarter. The Cruze is the first of a new family of Chevrolet small cars.
"Cruze is a perfect example of how GM's turnaround is focused on the right products at the right time," said GM North America President Mark Reuss at a plant press conference. "This is a global car already kicking goals in 60 international markets. Based on that reaction, we expect the plant will be busy building a hot seller for North America."
The Lordstown workforce will grow from 3,300 to 4,500 people. Most of the 1,200 workers being hired for the third shift will be laid-off union members. However, if GM is unable to fill the positions from the nationwide ranks of laid-off workers, it may hire new people. Those could be hired at a lower pay rate of $14 an hour with less benefits as allowed under the most recent United Auto Workers contract.
GM said Tuesday it had invested $1.4 billion in more than a dozen plants and recalled about 5,500 union workers since it emerged from bankruptcy in July. Of that total, $350 million was spent re-tooling the Lordstown plant. About 18 suppliers in the area also will benefit.
GM will introduce another new smaller-than-the-Cruze car, the Chevrolet Aveo, that will be built in Lake Orion, Mich., beginning in 2011. The previous Aveo was made in South Korea. -- Michelle Krebs, Senior Analyst and Editor at Large
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:35 AM under GM , News | Comments (5) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
There is not enough room in even an expanding US small car market for the Cruze, Focus, new for 2011 Civic, etc... to all do well, along with what I think will be the really killer car -- the 2011 Elantra. Think what the new Sonata is doing to the midsize market and you'll get an idea of what the 2011 Elantra promises for the compact market.
Posted by: maitlandking | February 23, 2010 at 1:01 PM
there is room, its just that the top sellers will lose share. This is not good for Corolla which is clearly a mediocre small car. I would look for it to lose major share over the next 2 years. I think there is a real possibility that Civic or Focus could become #1 selling small car in the future. When you say "there isnt room" that seems to be assuming that the cars getting the big sales now will maintain their position- I'm not sure that is true.
Posted by: 1487 | February 23, 2010 at 1:12 PM
Don't forget the Forté.
GM really needs to cool things down. Let the market tell you if there will be high demand. The public doesn't care if you're cranking up production of a new car. It's not going to push sales.
Posted by: estreka | February 23, 2010 at 1:57 PM
Is the call from the car rentals.
Posted by: iskch | February 24, 2010 at 8:19 AM
I remember in 1980s GM-10 (a.k.a W) cars were expected to outsell Ford Taurus and Reuss father Lloyd even devoted separate plant for each brand (Buick/Olds/Chevy and Pontiac) on these high expectations. And it was a big flop. GM lost about $2000 on each GM-10. And Reuss' dad of course got promotion and continued to destroy GM profits with his mistakes. Now it is 21st century and GM was unprepared. I hope than son is much smarter than father and knows what he is doing. GM always was over-optimistic though and promoted wrong people all the time, like Lloyd Reuss.
Posted by: savetheland | February 26, 2010 at 5:53 PM