GM closing down SUV, pick up plants

Automobile giant General Motors has said that it would close down four pickup and SUV assembly plants throughout North America. The announcement comes owing to a clear consumer shift away from trucks and SUVs because of high gas prices, it has been reported. The Detroit-based General Motors had been rolling out the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana vans at its assembly plant in Wentzville. The plant has approximately 2,000 employees, the report added.

Besides, the plant at Ohio’s Moraine that has manufacturing General Motors’ Chevy TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy and Saab 9-7x  is being planned to call it quits by year 2010. . Sources said that the closure might even come earlier if the market says no to the products in the Moraine assembly line. The report pointed out that the car maker’s Janesville plant will stop production of medium-duty trucks by the end of 2009, while the Tahoe, Suburban and Yukon plants will be shut down in 2010. GM is also closing plants in Toluca, Mexico, and Oshawa, Ontario, it added.

Customers in the United States have been shifting away from pickups and SUVs of late. With this phenomenon getting faster by the day, Genera Motors might go in for an increase its production of its small and midsize cars. This in mind, the company has even added an extra shift last September at its Lake Orion facility where the Chevy Malibus and Pontiac G6s are made.

With these many plants seeing closure, the company is expected to save more than $1 billion by 2010. It may be recalled that GM had clocked a net loss of $3.25 billion duirng the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Adding punch to the close down news is the company’s decision to have a strategic review of its famous Hummer brand. Company officials have hinted at a Hummer product revamp or a sale of the brand. A final decision is yet to come. GM might also sell the military-derived SUV line, which are creating a headache for the company due to their gas-guzzling traits