GM putting NZ$550m into New York plant’s EV drive units

General Motors (GM) will invest NZ$550.489 million (US$300m) in its Tonawanda facility in New York to build EV drive units.

This investment is part of a tentative contract between GM and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, says GM Authority.

The Tonawanda plant produces Gen 5 V8s for GM pickups, SUVs and the C8 Corvette, including the naturally aspirated 6.2L LT2 V8 gasoline engine and the naturally aspirated 5.3L L84 V8 gasoline engine, says GM Authority.

“Notably, the GM Spring Hill plant in Tennessee also manufactures V8 engines and will also receive EV production investments,” it says, adding Spring Hill is due to convert to EVs-only in a few years.

Other EV-related GM investments include the GM Orion plant (US$4 billion for future EVs), GM Spring Hill plant (US$2 billion for Cadillac Lyriq production along with another GM EV and the Acura ZDX), GM Lansing River plant (US$1.25 billion for EV production), GM Toledo plant (US$760 million for drive unit production), GM Fairfax plant (US$391 million for future EVs), GM Warren plant (US$81 million for Cadillac Celestiq production) and GM Defiance plant (US$8 million for EV casting cell production).