GM confirms plans to build compact cars in US | ABC30 Fresno

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By ABC30

Friday, May 29, 2009

DETROIT (AP) The company said in a written statement that the retooled factory will be able to build 160,000 small and compact cars per year. The automaker did not say which factory would be selected to build the cars.

GM, which is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, also plans to announce then that it will close 14 more factories, including four assembly plants.

The automaker had said in documents submitted to Congress that it planned to produce up to 51,000 subcompacts per year in China and ship them to the U.S. starting in 2011, when GM plans to start selling the Chevrolet Spark here. The three-door hatchback with a 1.2-liter turbocharged engine is about the size of a Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris and is set to go on sale in Europe next year.

But in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said GM will not import the cars from China and had agreed as part of a concession deal to build them in the U.S.

"Small cars represent one of the fastest-growing segments in both the U.S. and around the world," GM CEO Fritz Henderson said in the statement. "We believe this car will be a winner with our current and future customers in the U.S."

Henderson said the UAW concessions ensure GM's manufacturing competitiveness in the U.S.

GM already builds the compact Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 at a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and it plans to retool that plant to start making a new small car, the Chevrolet Cruze, next year.

A summary of a concession deal between the UAW and GM deal says an innovative labor agreement is needed for the company to produce compacts in the U.S. But Gettelfinger said that deal is near completion.

"I think basically we're there," he said. "There may have to be a few minor tweaks. The agreement that's in place here is competitive."

GM's plan to make the Spark subcompact in China and ship it to the U.S. drew criticism from the UAW and some members of Congress as it was negotiating the concession agreement. The plan was a political problem for the company, with the UAW saying it was wrong to take U.S. taxpayer loans and then ship jobs overseas.

GM has received $19.4 billion in federal loans and likely will get another $30 billion.