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GM to add 2,500 jobs at Detroit plant

DETROIT — General Motors said Wednesday it will add 2,500 jobs at a Detroit-area plant that now makes the Chevrolet Volt electric car.

The company plans to invest $69 million in the Detroit-Hamtramck factory and add two shifts of workers so the plant can make the new Chevrolet Malibu midsize car and the Impala large sedan.

Not all the jobs will be new hires. GM has about 1,300 laid-off workers waiting to be recalled in the U.S.

GM announced on May 10 that it would create or keep about 4,000 jobs by investing $2 billion in 17 factories in eight states.

Through Wednesday, the company has announced expansion plans in Bowling Green, Ky., Toledo, Ohio, and Flint and Bay City, Mich.

Beyond that, the automaker is mum on its plans, saying it will make specific facility investment announcements in the next few months.

Industry analysts have told the Gazette that GM’s shuttered plant in Janesville is not likely to be included in those announcements.

That’s because the automaker is likely to invest in plants operating below capacity.

Among GM’s 11 assembly plants, only five are running at their three-shift capacity, and the other six have room for expansion.

“The goal is to get everything to three shifts and make each plant as flexible as possible to be able to mix and match production to meet market demands,” David Cole, chairman of the Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research, told the Gazette earlier this month.

“They are on the right track, doing the plant upgrades and hiring people at existing plants.”

Cole said that as GM fills capacity at its existing plants, Janesville becomes more appealing as one of just two GM plants on standby. The other is in Spring Hill, Tenn., which Cole said is likely to be tapped first because it is newer and has a stamping operation.