Earlier in 2025, General Motors announced plans to invest $4 billion into its domestic factories over the next two years. Details about the investment are starting to emerge, and Michigan is one of the states that will benefit from it. Three popular full-size models, including the Cadillac Escalade, will be built there.
Citing “continued strong customer demand,” General Motors will build the Escalade, the GMC Sierra, and the Chevrolet Silverado in the Orion Assembly plant. Production will start in early 2027, according to CBS News. As of writing, the Escalade is built in Arlington, Texas, while plants in Indiana and Mexico make the light-duty variants of the Silverado and Sierra. Chevrolet also builds the Silverado in a factory in Canada.
That’s great news for Michigan’s economy. General Motors temporarily closed the Orion plant in 2023 after it stopped building the Chevrolet Bolt, slashing 945 jobs as a result. It aimed to retool the facility into an EV hub tasked with building electric pickups, such as the Silverado EV and the Sierra EV, but it delayed the shift to the fall of 2026 earlier in 2025.
The announcement leaves several other questions unanswered. There’s no word on what percentage of the $4 billion investment will be allocated to the Orion Assembly plant or how many jobs the expansion will create. General Motors previously explained it will use some of the investment to expand the Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kansas, and the Spring Hill Manufacturing facility in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer praised the announcement. “We don’t care what you drive—gas, diesel, hybrid, or electric—as long as it’s made in Michigan,” she commented.
“We don’t care what you drive—gas, diesel, hybrid, or electric—as long as it’s made in Michigan” Yeah that should be true of any state. Maybe a little sense is returning to a state that has an economy centered on the automobile.