President Joe Biden Attends GM’s Grand Opening Of Factory Zero EV Assembly Plant

President Joe Biden and UAW leadership are on hand today to help General Motors mark a major milestone in its electric transformation with the grand opening of the Factory Zero EV assembly plant.

“GM’s U.S. manufacturing expertise is key to achieving our all-electric future,” said GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra. “This is a monumental day for the entire GM team. We retooled Factory ZERO with the best, most advanced technology in the world to build the highest quality electric vehicles for our customers.”

All EVs built at Factory ZERO will be based on GM’s Ultium Platform, which the company calls the heart of its EV product strategy. The platform encompasses a common vehicle architecture and propulsion components like battery cells, modules, packs, drive units, EV motors, and integrated power electronics.

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Production is now set to begin at the facility, formerly known as the Detroit-Hamtramck plant. The grand opening comes two years after GM announced a $2.2 billion investment in the factory to fully renovate it.

That investment, though, is just two-thirds of what it would have cost to build a brand new plant, says GM. As it continues its transition, it expects to save as much as $15 billion in capital costs by renovating existing manufacturing facilities. Once 100 percent of its plants are switched to support EV production, it expects to save $20-$30 billion.

GM adds that renovating plants also saves time, allowing it to launch products faster. It takes the 2022 GMC Hummer EV pickup as an example, which started pre-production this fall and will be ready to be delivered to customers before the end of the year.

“To meet our ambitious EV transition, GM’s North American EV vehicle assembly capacity will reach 20 percent by 2025, and then 50 percent by 2030,” said Gerald Johnson, GM’s executive vice president of Global Manufacturing and Sustainability. “Factory ZERO serves as a model for transitions that will take place at other factories around the world in the coming years.”

Renovating plants is also a form of recycling, which helps save carbon. The automaker says it reused or recycled almost every material that came out of the facility during the conversion. Everything down to the crushed concrete from the plant floor was repurposed.

Moving forward, storm water will be recycled, treated, and used in cooling towers and in the plant’s fire suppression system. The site also features a 30 kW solar carport and a 516 kW ground-mounted photovoltaic solar array. GM states, though, that the real engine of progress at the factory will be its employees.

“Our people are GM’s true competitive advantage — an advantage you simply can’t buy or quickly build,” said Johnson. “At Factory ZERO, we are building on that experience with the training that will deliver EV and AV launch success with safety, quality, and speed while continuing to drive down cost per unit.”