GM Announces $1 Billion Investment in Mexico to Build Electric Vehicles

US President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress as US Vice President Kamala H
JIM WATSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Less than one day after President Biden proclaimed American workers would build the electric vehicles necessary to bring us into the zero admissions future, General Motors said it plans to invest more than $1 billion in Mexico to produce electric vehicles.

The automaker said Thursday it would make a $1 billion investment in its Ramos Arizpe production facility. The plant will begin producing at least one electric vehicle beginning in 2023, the company said.

The company did not disclose which vehicles would be produced at the plant or where they would be sold. But the plant currently produces parts and vehicles, including the Chevrolet Equinox and Chevrolet Blazer, that are sold in the U.S. and globally.

GM’s Spanish-language statement did not appear on its U.S. media site, only on GM’s Mexico’s media site, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The United Auto Workers union decried the decision to invest so much in the Mexican plant.

From the Detroit Free Press:

In a statement responding to the Mexico investment, United Auto Workers Vice President Terry Dittes, head of the union’s GM Department, said: “At a time when General Motors is asking for a significant investment by the U.S. government in subsidizing electric vehicles, this is a slap in the face for not only UAW members and their families but also for U.S. taxpayers and the American workforce.

“General Motors automobiles made in Mexico are sold in the United States and should be made right here, employing American workers,” he added. “That is why our nation is investing in these companies. Taxpayer money should not go to companies that utilize labor outside the U.S. while benefiting from American government subsidies. This is not the America any of us signed on for. Frankly, it is unseemly.”

In Wednesday night’s joint address to Congress, Biden said:

“So folks, there’s no reason why Americans — American workers can’t lead the world in the production of electric vehicles and batteries. We have the capacity. They’re best-trained people in the world. And all the investments in the American Jobs Plan will be guided by one principle: Buy American. Buy American.”

GM has said it plans to manufacture electric vehicles exclusively by 2035.

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