The coronavirus has shuttered plants across the United States, but it appears production hasn’t come to a complete standstill.
While General Motors plans to resume North American production on May 18th, the New York Times notes some facilities are already operational and they’re not the ones building ventilators.
Instead, the company’s plant in Bedford, Indiana has been running three shifts, since April, building the chassis for the popular Corvette C8. However, operations are far from normal as each shift only has approximately 20 employees instead of the usual 250 or so. There are also additional safety protocols and the employees volunteered to work even though they aren’t receiving any extra pay.
Also Read: 2020 Corvette C8 Is America’s Mid-Engine Sports Car For The Masses
While the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky remains closed, the Bedford facility is making chassis’ to help the company quickly resume C8 production. Needless to say, GM has a backlog of orders for the Corvette and production was already delayed by last year’s strike.
So far, the company has only built around 2,700 C8s despite huge demand for the mid-engine sports car. That’s a problem and the publication noted the Corvette has an estimated profit margin of 16.5% – roughly twice the company’s average in North America.
The Bedford plant isn’t the only facility that has reopened during the pandemic as GM’s Arlington, Texas plant resumed production for approximately ten days to build the final current-generation Chevrolet Tahoe / Suburban, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade SUVs. Now that those have been built, the plant can focus on the redesigned 2021 models when production resumes.
Another plant in Lockport, New York also resumed production this week. That facility builds an assortment of components including radiators, condensers, heater cores and HVAC modules.
