- GM is closing its Brownstown Battery Assembly plant as its lease ends and repurposing a building originally meant for hydrogen fuel cell development, according to an Automotive News report.
- The Brownstown plant built batteries and electric drive units for the Cadillac Celestiq, seen above, and the now-discontinued Corvette E-Ray.
- The closure and repurposing are part of GM’s plan to pivot back to gas-powered engines after losing substantial money in alternative fuel investments and development.
Until relatively recently, GM was investing heavily in EV development, releasing several electric models and even pledging to become carbon-neutral by 2040. But Americans simply aren’t buying into the EV hype, and the loss of the federal EV tax credit has soured the deal quite a bit for shoppers who may have been on the fence. As a result, several automakers have had to reverse course after investing large amounts of money into alternative fuel development and losing even more when the demand never quite took off.
GM appears to be the latest automaker to pull the plug on a big part of its alternative fuels operations. The company will close its Brownstown Battery Assembly plant, a leased 480,000-square-foot facility, and repurpose another plant that was initially meant for hydrogen fuel cell development, according to an Automotive News report.
The Corvette E-Ray also sourced components from the Brownstown plant.
The Brownstown plant builds batteries and electric drive units for the Corvette E-Ray and batteries for the Cadillac Celestiq. While the luxe Celestiq EV remains in production for 2027, the E-Ray has been discontinued in the new model year, effectively replaced by the Corvette Grand Sport X.
In addition to building EV components, about 80,000 square feet of the Brownstown plant was reportedly used for hydrogen energy development. In 2017, GM entered a joint venture with Honda to produce a hydrogen fuel cell system. The plant served as the partnership’s headquarters for several years until the joint venture was disbanded last year. GM is no longer working on a hydrogen fuel cell system, citing high costs, limited infrastructure, and low demand.
That leaves the Brownstown plant effectively useless to GM. The 480,000 square-foot plant will be decommissioned when the lease ends next summer. In a statement to Car and Driver, a GM spokesperson said, “The lease on the Brownstown Battery Assembly plant is ending next year, and GM is planning to transition this work to other nearby GM facilities.”
GM wouldn’t say where the Celestiq would source its batteries from now that Brownstown is being closed.
The canceled hydrogen project also leaves GM with a slightly smaller Detroit-based plant in need of repurposing. Much like the GM-Honda partnership, the plant was originally intended to house a now-dissolved fuel cell project between GM and Piston Automotive. GM reportedly took over Piston’s part of the plant’s long-term lease with plans to repurpose the space.
Since the Celestiq remains in production for now, GM will need to find a new place to build the EV’s batteries once the Brownstown plant closes, as well as the batteries and motors for the remaining hybrid Corvette variants. GM wouldn’t comment on where specifically these operations are moving to. It’s currently unclear what the automaker plans to do with the 300,000 square-foot building it planned to share with Piston.
GM’s investment in EVs and hydrogen fuel cell development has reportedly caused the company to take a huge financial hit, and the automaker is following the industry’s lead by pivoting back to gasoline engines, at least for now. Most of GM’s current EV lineup consists of electric counterparts to well-established gas-powered vehicles. Those EV versions are still heavily outsold by their gas-powered partners, and GM’s standalone EV models haven’t seen much of a sales boom, either.
The automaker’s move to dissolve or repurpose plants originally built for alternative fuel-based production seems to be further confirmation of GM’s shift away from EV development to meet the current demands of the U.S. market.
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Alayna Wilkening grew up reading motorsport magazines and following her grandpa around his Chevrolet dealership's showroom floor. In true Hoosier fashion, her first car was a hot pink custom cardboard "Fiero-vette" for her kindergarten Kindy 500 race. She now autocrosses a 1994 Miata with her dad, which she learned to drive the night before her first event. Alayna went to Indiana University and graduated with a degree in journalism and a minor in graphic design. As a testament to her great taste in cars, her first real one was a metallic orange 2007 Chevy HHR, which she lovingly called "The Dumptruck."