GM plans to begin making the Chevy Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV at its Factory Zero in Detroit this year before adding the Orion plant as a second assembly site in 2024. Together, the two plants will give GM the ability to make 600,000 electric pickups a year.
“General Motors has identified the former Palace of Auburn Hills site as a potential location for a supplier park to support its Orion Assembly Plant, which will be expanded to produce electric pickup trucks,” GM said in a statement. “The company is still determining the scope of work and which supplier will have operations in support of the plant.”
Production of the Bolt will end in late 2023, GM said this week, and employment at the Orion plant is expected to roughly triple when it reopens to pickup production next year.
Crain’s Detroit Businessan affiliate of Automotive Newsfirst reported the planned development in early March for the property co-owned by a developer and Pistons owner Tom Gores, who paid $22 million for the site in 2019.
“We have been planning and preparing for this day for the last seven years,” Auburn Hills Major Kevin McDaniel said in a statement Friday. “This would be a significant project and would represent a tremendous strategic investment in our community. It would also build on our reputation as being a ‘hub’ of electric vehicle development and manufacturing.”
The Pistons played on the site from 1988 to 2017 before moving to Little Caesars Arena in downtown Detroit.