The bad news just keeps on coming for General Motors and Flint, Michigan. It was reported late last night that construction contracts for the new $370 million engine plant that was going up in Flint have been canceled. GM actually stopped work on the project in early December. The plant was to produce the new 1.4-liter four cylinder engine for the 2011 Chevy Cruze and Volt.

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Tags: Cruze, engine plant, European, Flint, GM, Lordstown, Michigan, Volt
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General Motors has confirmed that the first batch of its upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids will feature an internal combustion ‘back-up’ engine sourced from Aspern, Austria, and not from Flint, Michigan, as originally planned. The announcement comes just a week after it was revealed that GM’s contract to build a new engine plant in Flint to supply the necessary 1.4L four-cylinder units for the Volt had been canceled.

The decision to source the engines from overseas will not add any extra cost to the car’s eventual sticker price, which is expected to fall some around the $40,000 mark. The information comes from GM spokesperson Sharon Basel who told Ward’s Auto that GM is simply leveraging its global footprint and that there was nothing unusual about the decision.

Basel also stressed that Flint will remain the target for North American sourcing of the 1.4L engine, and that GM may consider using an existing plant instead of building something new.

The engine in question is a new 1.4L petrol unit from an engine group called the ‘Family 0’, which includes powerplants displacing between 1.0 and 1.4L. Family 0 engines first appeared as far back as 1997 and have been in production in Europe since then. A naturally-aspirated version of the 1.4L unit was destined for the Volt, while the upcoming Chevrolet Cruze was to use a more powerful turbocharged version.

The Austrian engines will be sent to the Volt assembly plant in Hamtramck, Michigan, and the Cruze facility in Lordstown, Ohio.

GM is still committed to investing $30 million to build a new battery plant in Michigan together with LG Chem. It hopes to build about 10,000 Volts in the first year of production, eventually ramping up to about 60,000 units per year.

Tags: Aspern, Austria, Chevrolet, Cruze, LG Chem., Lordstown, Ohio, turbo, Volt
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General Motors announced today it will be spending just a little over $500 million on an expansion to build a manufacturing plant for the engines that will be powering the upcoming Chevy Cruze and Chevy Volt.

Press release below:

GM Announces $370 Million Investment for New Small Engine Manufacturing in North America

New GM engines will power Chevrolet Cruze and electrify Chevy Volt New, highly flexible manufacturing facility is planned

FLINT , Mich. – General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner today announced that the company will invest $370 million in the U.S. to build a new manufacturing plant for its global 4-cylinder engines in Flint, Mich. The plant will begin production in the U.S. in 2010, and will be the exclusive manufacturing facility in North America to produce the Chevrolet Volt’s range extending engine.

The investment in Flint is one of several that have been announced at U.S. plants in the past 10 years, adding up to over a $9 billion total investment in Michigan and more than $42 billion in the United States. “GM, the UAW and the City of Flint have had a long- standing relationship,” Wagoner said. ” Based on the capability and the commitment of the men and women who will work here, the tradition and leadership from UAW Local 599, the tremendous automotive heritage that underlies this region, and the strong partnerships we enjoy with local, state, and federal governments… we are confident that Flint is exactly the right place to build our all-new powertrain plant.”

“We are proud that General Motors has chosen Michigan as the best place to develop and produce the revolutionary Chevy Volt and other next-generation vehicles and components,” Governor Jennifer M. Granholm said. “Our competitive business climate, outstanding workforce and aggressive strategy to diversify our economy put us in a strong position to win this project and be the state that helps GM produce the cars and trucks that will help end our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.”

The investment includes construction of the new 552,000 square foot plant, machinery, equipment and special tooling to support production of the new 4-cylinder engines. In addition to the $349 million facility investment, GM will invest an additional $21 million for vendor tooling to support the new Flint operations. Construction on the new facility is slated to begin immediately, with completion in 2010. The project will retain about 300 hourly jobs.

Two engines will be built at the new facility. A 1.4-liter turbo for the Chevrolet Cruze and 1.4-liter naturally aspirated engine for the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle (E-REV), will be new members of an engine family already deployed successfully around the world, primarily in Europe. The engines will play a key role in GM’s plan to double global production of small four-cylinder engines by 2011, with more than half of that increase coming from North America.

Tom Stephens, GM Executive Vice President of Global Powertrain and Global Quality spoke to the role the 1.4-liter turbo will play in the company’s line-up. “The new 1.4L turbo for the Chevrolet Cruze highlights GM’s global commitment to offering engines that provide outstanding fuel efficiency without compromising vehicle performance. The new 1.4L turbocharged engine has the power of a larger engine, but retains the efficiency of a small-displacement four-cylinder. And with this engine, we expect the Cruze to be a fuel economy leader in its segment when it’s introduced in early 2010 . “

Within the new engine plant will be GM Powertrain’s most flexible and competitive engine assembly lines in the world, with approximately 300 highly flexible stations that will allow assembly of multiple 4-cylinder engine families without retooling. The plant will be a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified facility, the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. And the plant will be landfill free, meaning no waste from manufacturing operations will go to landfills, but will be recycled, reused or converted to energy, proving the plant will be as environmentally sound as the products it manufactures.

Tags: 1.4L, chevy, Cruze, Flint, Michigan, Volt
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CEO Rick Wagoner has confirmed that the new upcoming electric car, that has made headlines across the world will be powered by a 1.4L engine.

The 1.4L engine is the same global engine that would essentially power the upcoming Chevy Cruze and several vehicles in GM’s European division. The Chevy Cruze making it’s debut in 2009 in Europe is expected to have a version of the 140hp 1.4L global engine.

Both the Volt and the Cruze will be built on a Delta platform, which is a common platform with several GM, Saturn and Opel vehicles.

GM has confirmed fuel mileage to be around 50mpg when in hybrid mode, and the range of the vehicle with no gasoline used to be 40 miles. This is when the battery packs of the vehicle power the car instead of the gas motor. The distance of battery reliance depends on the technology used in the lithium battery pack the Volt will receive.

The gasoline engine will act as a supplementary power unit, such as a giant alternator and the vehicles will be powered mainly by the battery packs and electric motor.

This means, that it really is of no consequence, which engine GM opts for to make the Volt with, as long as it is semi fuel efficient.

This engine combination will open up a whole new level of vehicle performance tuning, as electric motors offer extremely powerful low end torque, which will help with off the line performance.

Tags: battery, Cruze, electric, GM, performance, Volt, Wagoner
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