69

The timing of the recent GM press releases is a “head scratcher” as the Detroit Auto Show is just around the corner… The media will hammer GM during the auto show regarding the plant closures and worker displacements. Any positive GM “product news” during the Detroit Auto Show will be drowned out by the media. I really doubt that GM will unveil the C8ME at the Detroit Auto Show as the GM PR spin doctors will not be able to make the ME positive product news..January Detroit Auto Show C8 Unveiling“Hello ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you the new Chevrolet Corvette Mid-Engine C8 and oh, by the way, we are closing some plants and kicking 14k workers to the curb! What do you think of our all brand new C8?!!!”GM has said if it cannot achieve enough cost savings between the buyouts and other cost-cutting measures, it might consider involuntary job cuts after the first of the year, (January Detroit Auto Show timing).If you are flying in to Detroit for a for the auto show/ME unveiling, I hope you bought a “refundable plane ticket”!https://www.freep.com/story/money/ca...re/2123254002/

April New York Auto Show C8 Unveiling“Hello ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you the new Chevrolet Corvette Mid-Engine C8 and oh, by the way, we are closing some plants and kicking 14k workers to the curb! What do you think of our all brand new C8?!!!”If you are flying in to New York for the auto show//ME unveiling, I hope you bought a “refundable plane ticket”! UAW to Challenge GM Over Plant Closingshttps://www.industryweek.com/talent/...plant-closings"The UAW and our members will confront this decision by GM through every legal, contractual and collective bargaining avenue open to our membership.”So let’s review, there have been no recent sighting of the ME in the wild, maybe GM decided that in planning this “new company course” it would be politically correct (for GM) to put the ME’s in the barn until things cool off awhile…maybe extend the C7 for one more model year and launch the ME as a 2021 model…Now that President Trump and his GM tweets are in the mix, bringing more media focus on GM’s “new company course”, there is little chance of unveiling the ME at Detroit or New York… President Donald Trump says his administration and lawmakers are exerting "a lot of pressure" on General Motors in response to its decision to cut up to 14,000 workers in North America and possibly shutter up to five plants. (Nov. 26) AP

Goose

C2C3C4C6

I hope the cuts are in marketing, accounting and design...these people suck.

WICKEDFRC

Agreed. Especially the design team.

nyca

Maybe Barra has the C8 mules driving around Mexico.

ShagVette

Great, another worthless C8 thread.

ojm

They have no idea what rear lights to use maybe off a Camaro or Edsel.

usgecko

Now that's hilarious coming from an attorney

Zaro Tundov

The tariffs are costing GM and Ford each a about a billion dollars a year:

https://www.foxbusiness.com/business...ost-company-1b
https://www.freep.com/story/money/ca...or/1431916002/

Thus the money has to come from somewhere, and it sure as hell isn't increased car sales. If GM doesn't shut down unprofitable operations then it puts ALL of their operations at risk, even the beloved Corvette.

I have family members who will be out of work because of those tariffs, so I know the pain caused when a factory shuts down. It's horrible, but sometimes you've gotta amputate a limb to save the patient. Just hope the patient lives, because sh ts about to get real next year once inflation rears up.

69

The shiz getting real at GM!
GM's secret plan to shut plants, cut jobs likely signals more to comehttps://www.freep.com/story/money/ca...bs/2137547002/
Given that the automaker said it will continue to hire people for jobs related to the development of electric vehicle and autonomous vehicle technology even as it cuts other jobs, Drury warned, "There’s definitely more to come, but it depends on where GM places its bets for the future.” Expect more job cuts and other operational shifts next year, he said. "All those are possible until the full plan is laid out," said Drury.
Adding to the unknown is GM's new chief financial officer, Dhivya Suryadevara, who took the role Sept. 1. Analysts said she likely played a big role as an architect to this plan.
Secrets safe
A document GM filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission read, in part: "On November 20, 2018, the General Motors Company Board of Directors approved a plan to accelerate the company’s transformation for the future. The plan is expected to strengthen the company’s core business, capitalize on the future of personal mobility, and drive significant cost efficiencies, and it consists, in relevant part, of restructuring the Global Product Development Group, realigning current manufacturing capacity and utilization, and reducing salaried and contract staff and capital expenditures. These actions are expected to be substantially completed by the end of 2019."
Who should worry
Industry experts said GM's secrecy about the cost-cutting plan is impressive, but the plan itself should not be surprising. "One-shift plants are not financially sustainable," said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of Industry, Labor & Economics at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.
Automotive News Today
http://www.autonews.com/article/2018...apacity-demand
Abandonment issues
GM executives have said they do not intend to abandon cars to the extent that Ford and FCA have. GM car plants that will remain open include Fairfax, Kan., which builds the Chevrolet Malibu and Cadillac XT4 compact crossover. But that plant is operating at 48 percent of capacity, well below the 80 percent that GM CEO Mary Barra is targeting as the average for North America.
A GM plant in Lansing, Mich., that builds the Cadillac ATS and CTS and Chevrolet Camaro is running at just 33 percent capacity, while the GM Orion Township, Mich., facility that builds the Chevrolet Bolt electric car and the Chevrolet Sonic subcompact runs at 34 percent capacity. A Bowling Green, Ky., plant that builds the Chevrolet Corvette works at just 27 percent of its potential output, according to LMC data

I was at the National Corvette Museum a few weeks ago for a series of meetings (NCM related meetings) and we received a BG Plant briefing from BG Plant management and it was very clear>>there is only ONE shift building Corvette’s now...
Goose

Bikerjulio

That's interesting, but at odds with with what I've read from other knowledgeable people here.

If the current output is around 20,000/year and that represents 27% capacity, that would imply the plant has a max capacity of close to 80,000, when it's never been close to that.

The predicted future number for production of the C8 is 30,000/year, which if true would imply continuing underutilization.

Interested to see what others say.

On the first point about the reveal, I don't agree that the recent closures will push GM into delaying a C8 announcement. If they are smart they will be putting out some good news stories, and the C8 should be one of them.

69

Yeah I question whether BG is capable of producing 80k cars a year… Maybe this 80k number is coming from with recent BG facility improvements ???

Even with the BG XLR production, BG only hit 50+% capacity (@80K Max) a few times since 1981…



When BG was building the Cadi;

Assembled in Bowling Green, KY alongside the Chevrolet Corvette, the XLR was produced for model years 2004-2009 and was based on the Chevrolet Corvette C6. It was nominated for the North American Car of the Year award for 2004, and was the second roadster offered by Cadillac in recent years. In 2005, a total of 3,730 XLRs were sold (the highest over the life of the vehicle) with a grand total of only 15,460 XLRs being sold over a nine year period.

Source https://www.corvettemuseum.org/explore/exhibits/gone-but-not-forgotten/



ales by body type too.



To see monthly splits, check out Corvette Sales by Month.



Total Corvette Sales Numbers (by Year)



Generation Corvette Model Year Total Production

https://www.corvsport.com/corvette-sales-volume-year/

Gen year total

C7 2017 22,801

C7 2016 40,689

C7 2015 34,240

C6/C7 2014 37,288

C6 2013 13,466

C6 2012 11,647

C6 2011 13,596

C6 2010 12,194

C6 2009 16,956

C6 2008 35,310

C6 2007 40,561

C6 2006 34,021

C5/C6 2005 37,372

C5 2004 34,064

C5 2003 35,469

C5 2002 35,767

C5 2001 35,627

C5 2000 33,682

C5 1999 33,270

C5 1998 31,084

C4/C5 1997 9,752

C4 1996 21,536

C4 1995 20,742

C4 1994 23,330

C4 1993 21,590

C4 1992 20,479

C4 1991 20,639

C4 1990 23,646

C4 1989 26,412

C4 1988 22,789

C4 1987 30,632

C4 1986 35,109

C4 1985 39,729

C4 1984 51,547

C3 1982 25,407

C3 1981 40,606

Jeff V.

There certainly could be more coming, but this can can also be said because it's going to take them some time to wind down the plants. They're not all closing today or even next month. Oshawa for example is scheduled to continue operating until some time in Q4 2019.

https://www.gminsidenews.com/article...tering-plants/

Lordstown : March 2019
Baltimore : April 2019
Detroit-Hamtramck : June 2019
Warren : August 2019
Oshawa : Q4 2019

Stingcan

maybe so but I do think something needs to be done about China's ambitions to dominate every field by subsidizing the crap and making competition impossible. That said, GM is losing 1bn you say...how much did they gain with the corporate tax cuts? seriously asking because I do not know...

Zaro Tundov

I don't know, but those tax cuts resulted in an incentive to offshore production because overseas profits are now taxed at a lower rate than US profits. D'oh!

TPP would have helped contain China by forming a pacific trade pact that excluded China. It had issues, but they could have been fixed if the political will and leadership were there. Instead we have rising raw material costs and crops rotting in storage. Nobody wins in a tit for tat tariff battle, most of all the consumer.

RonnieC6Z

BG operating at 27% capacity simply means that there is very little demand, at this point in time, for the 2019 C7 Corvette. Come next summer when production of the 2020 ME C8 Corvette begins, BG will be at 100% capacity for quite some time.

Jeff V.

So they're going to build 80,000 of these things a year.

Ok...

rgregory

Also have to know what they are basing that on. 1, 2, 3 shifts? Maybe plant is running 1 shift 5 days a week and not at full capacity on that shift but close to it. That would leave potential for a 2nd and 3rd shift that could increase capacity by 66% over 1 single shift.

Tom73

NORTY

Tarrifs are running approx $38 per car.

Dominic Sorresso