General Motors is boosting its full-size pickup production with a $24 million investment at their Fort Wayne Assembly Plant.
The latest iteration of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 1500 pickups are a huge success, according to General Motors. Sales are up a whopping 20% in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the same time last year, with the redesigned Silverado and Sierra rekindling interesting the second best-selling pickup truck in North America (unless you count them separately, then Ram is the second best-selling pickup).
Clearly, full-size pickups are a big deal for GM. That’s why they’ve recently announced an additional $24 million investment for the Fort Wayne truck manufacturing center to help increase the flow of new 1500 pickups. Particularly in crew cab form, as they’re the most popular option picked by new truck owners.
“We are building Chevrolet and GMC crew cab pickups at record volume and mix levels to meet customer demand and the $24 million investment will allow us to build even more,” said GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra in a press release.
“The team here at Fort Wayne has done an outstanding job helping us satisfy customers throughout this launch. Our product ramp-up was very smooth and the quality has been exceptional. Crew cab sales have been very strong, and we are expanding customer choice with new models, more cab choices and innovative new powertrains.”
The money will be earmarked for new tooling and conveyors to help support production. Work is expected to complete later this summer, with total investment in the plant since 2015 climbing to $1.2 billion.
GM’s newest iteration of the Silverado and Sierra 1500s went on sale last summer with a surprising array of standard features and a complete array of engines (except for the EcoDiesel, which will go on sale for the 2020 model year). With the recent introduction of the double-cab model, GM expects sales to keep growing into the second quarter of 2019.