GM Delays Construction of Chevy Volt Engine Plant, Says Hybrid Still on Schedule

Financially strapped General Motors Corp. has quietly deferred construction of the Flint engine plant it announced with great fanfare earlier this year as the home of the new four-cylinder engines it would be using in the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid.

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GM's new 1.4-liter engine is displayed at vacant lot slated to be site for now-delayed Flint,Mi., engine plant.

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GM insists that the construction delay won't throw the Volt off schedule and that start of production is still slated for late 2010.

The turbocharged 1.4-liter engines to be built at the $359 million plant and installed in the Volt (below) wouldn't be used to propel the car but would serve instead as onboard generators to provide power to the Volt's electric motor. the plant also was to make engines for the upcoming Chevrolet Cruze compact.

Although GM isn't saying when it might restore funding for the plant's construction, powertrain division spokeswoman Sharon Basel said the automaker "still has plenty of time" to get the factory up and running without delaying the Volt's rollout (unless, of course, GM ends up in bankruptcy , in which case all bets are off).

"We still have some activities, like site surveying and engineering, that are going on," Basel said.

What was canceled as GM struggles to pare spending to the bone while it waits for a controversial federal auto industry bailout to be authorized by the Bush administration was "spending for materials for the new plant, things like structural steel," Basel said.

It's difficult to build a factory without structural steel.

The construction delay wasn't on GM's recent list of plants and projects affected by its financial meltdown. It came to light when the local paper in Flint -- a city that has suffered tremendous economic pain at the hands of GM over the years -- asked the automaker for a weekly progress update on the project.

Posted by

John O'Dell December 17, 2008, 1:34 PM

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