Featured Volt and Cruise factories to close.

For a few years.

 

Two-mode was still being built for buses, but White Marsh is one of the five.

"Oshawa Assembly in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, makers of the Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Impala, Chevrolet Silverado, and GMC Sierra
Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Detroit, makers of the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6, Chevrolet Impala, and Chevrolet Volt
Lordstown Assembly in Warren, Ohio, maker of the Chevrolet Cruze
Baltimore Operations in White Marsh, Maryland, makes of the A1000 Transmission, Hybrid 2-MODE Transmission, 6-Speed Torque Converters, and Electric Motors
Warren Transmission Operations in Warren, Michigan, makers of the 6-speed transmission (6T70) for GMC Acadia, Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac XTS and Electric Drive Unit (GFE) for Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, and Buick Velite (SGM)"
GM to Lay Off 14,700, Close 5 US and Canadian Plants | CleanMPG

 

er - so, no Cruze hybrid?

Seriously though - cruze going away .... were their sales really that bad? They always seem to have plenty of them at Nashville International Airport Rentals, & we had more than one when we'd fly in. For an ice, they had pretty decent mileage iirc.
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When the public doesn't buy them, they get dumped into rental fleets. I rent a lot of cars that get booked by an unknown, unseen person in a giant corporation somewhere- so I don't actually pick the cars. I get whatever they have. And for the past few years, that is always Cruzes, Impalas, Malibus, Fusions... maybe the odd Elantra or Corolla thrown in, but it's rare enough that those feel like a treat.

 

Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America – September 2018 | GCBC
GM has always had trouble making a fuel efficient profitable small car, and the cruze was the first time I can remember them doing it. Unfortunately the competitors - corola and civic have gotten better and sell over twice as many units. Hyundai's elantra is gaining market share too. Ford already decided to kill their competitor the focus in the US market. GM would need a really good redesign to be profitable, and with them already taking a political hit for the layoffs and closings, they added one more closed plant and ripped the band aid off to kill the cruze. Strategically I think its a mistake to have not partnered with another company to make a combined model to replace it, but killing the plant now is probably a good decision. Get the bad news out now in one bite instead of trickle it.

The volt's demise is a little less strategic. The volt can't maintain that factory on its its own and they are killing the impala and Cadillac ct6 that are made there. Voltec really should be in something like the rav4 CUV, not in its current car. Unfortunately their competitor the equinox was just redesigned, and it doesn't look like it was designed to also carry a large battery.

 

It is amazing how important chasis is.....seems like we only get a new chasis every 25-yrs. So for example Prius chasis is not really optimized for PHEV Prime, so who knows how long we have to wait for PHEV's with some cargo space etc., which is theoretically well within grasp, but...

GM of course now lobbying in favor of electric vehciles, presumably figuring a U.S.-wide mandate along those lines woud help them regain small car BEV market, especially since Toyota/Honda are not interested so far in that direction.

 

As you can see from the 2019 announced Prius today, I would say the Prius chassis is optimized for hybrid with "indents" in the metal for the following hybrid features: optional spare tire, solar roof option and extra small bat, AWD option (very popular in Japan).

For a better PHEV we would want a chassis with dents in the metal to better hide a 8 KwHr bvattery. Not to mention only a 4 seater. An optimized PHEV chassis might have to be a little bigger and stronger.

P.S: At least now we are getting the AWD option in USA, that makes better overall global use of the chassis as designed. Hope it helps in some regions to sell more.

 

I'm pretty sure the plug-in model required a substantially revised transmission involving a one-way clutch to enable operation at highway speed without the ICE running. So it's bigger, heavier, and it's a different part number not shared by the cordless hybrids though at least some of the internal components will be shared.

 

The still fits part is the hang up.
This is the space under the Prime's battery.

The curved wall marks this as the area in which the spare tire sits on the Prius. If the chassis had been designed for a PHEV, the open area here might have been made larger, making it easier to mount the battery lower down in the hatch space. Then for the hybrid/ICE model, a cheap Styrofoam insert could be used to snuggle a spare tire, or just leave the space available for cargo.

Of course, more R&D time and money would have yielded a battery that would fit better into that space. VW got it to work in the A3 E-tron.

Front engine, FWD cars are a poor choice for a PHEV when it comes to maximizing space. You have to run the exhaust from the from to the rear. That makes a simple skate board battery pack impossible, and the heat from it needs to be kept in mind for where the battery ends up. But designing the chassis with a larger battery in mind makes it easier.

 

even after the model 3 started slaughtering other's sales (despite fed $ drying up) , the volt still used to keep within the top ½ dozen volume contenders. If volt sales numbers are worthy of The Chopping Block, they ought to kill off the leaf as well. Works for me.

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with chosen gone, you may get your wish. i see it as a loss to overall ev progression though