First Chevy Volt engines will come from Aspern, Austria
It's no longer a surprise that the engine for the first Chevy Volts will come from Europe instead of Flint, Michigan. Specifically, the 1.4L four cylinder engines, part of the "Family 0" line, will be made at the GM plant in Aspern, Austria. Similar engines will go into Chevrolet Cruze models to be assembled in Lordstown, Ohio. Volt assembly will still happen in Hamtramck, Michigan.
Since GM says it has always intended to get the first engines from Europe, the sale price projection for the plug-in hybrid remain the same. Of course, no one outside of GM knows what that number actually is, but apparently it won't be higher because all the engines need to spend some time on a boat.
Related:
- Tech analysis of GM's new 1.4L four cylinder engine
- GM officially announces Flint MI production for Volt/Cruze engines
Gallery: GM Flint Powertrain 1.4L engine
[Source: Ward's Auto via GM-Volt]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Realistic_Idealist 5:55PM (2/04/2009)
Really nice GM!
So much for keeping it "Made in USA".
Oh yeah! I forgot you guys are just keeping in track with that long tradition of headline bait-and-switch.
Maybe the gas it's gonna take to ship those engines back here can be offset by more GREENWASHING propaganda!
Or just ask for some more BAIL OUT money! ANYTHING to save the Lutz and the Wagoner!!!
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JM 11:05AM (2/05/2009)
So basically we just gave GM taxpayer's money as part of the bailout fund, then they come around and have the engine assembled outside the US.
ziv 6:31PM (2/04/2009)
No big deal, Chevy is only going to deliver 10,000 the first year anyway. Just build the car, and work to bring the prices down on the Volt II. By the time they ramp up to 5,000 a month they will have an engine plant in the states, I would imagine. Just build a car I can plug in that seats 4, goes at least 30 miles on a charge and looks like a car, not a toy.
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Gordio 10:55PM (2/04/2009)
I think it' s a big deal. A while ago US auto asked for a bailout. I'm sure part of the deal was to keep jobs in the US. Americans are supposed to work together during these times.
ziv 8:12AM (2/05/2009)
Building the Volt is more important than the source of the first 10 or 20 thousand engines. We bailed out GM and Chrysler because it is in our best interests to do so, or so they thought at the time. American built cars have tons of foreign parts, have for years. If we go down the Smoot-Hawley path, I doubt there is any way to estimate how bad the result will be. Build the Volt any way they can, if GM can survive until 2010, which is in doubt. Building a new engine plant while GM is losing billions of dollars will make their survival that much less likely.
GM doesn't build the engine the Volt needs in the US because until the oil prices ran up last year, Americans refused to buy the crappy little cars GM's UAW contract (i.e. jobs bank, sky high wages, etc.) and poor business model forced them to build. I am all in favor of American firms sourcing locally as much as possible, but don't make it a hard and fast rule that causes us more harm than good.
JM 11:25AM (2/05/2009)
So why would you think GM would spend money in the future to move production back here in the US (where things costs more here), and halt everthing back in Austria all of a sudden? This would mean they just wasted the investment they have done in the Austrian plant that includes retraining the workers and retooling the factory to be able to produce this engine. Plus the workers there have probably gotten more and more experienced and proficient now in producing the engine.
If I own a business I would also think this is counterintuitive.
Plus if demand for the engine increases, its more cost-effective if i'll just hire more workers and scale out the factory in Austria (and the experienced workers and managers can do knowledge sharing to the new hires) versus creating a brand new factory here in the US.
ziv 11:48AM (2/05/2009)
They are building the engines in Austria to start with because they are already building them there for the smaller European cars and it is a good, proven engine. They don't build this engine, yet, in the states because they haven't built a car that is small enough to allow this engine to work with performance Americans expect. But the Volt will be the perfect fit for it, even though GM will have to pay a bit of a premium to ship the first 10 or 20 thousand from Austria to the US. Once the Cruze is in production, GM will be putting this smaller 1.4l Family 0 engine in the high mileage version, and a larger, or turbo, engine in the 'sportier' models. So they are going to be needing 60,000 of the smaller Family 0 engines just for Volt production, plus however many Cruzes are ordered with the smaller engine. So GM would be paying a premium on 100,000+ engines to ship them over here.
Plus, with the new UAW agreement, most of which should happen, GM will be able to build cars, and engines, more efficiently and less expensively than they do now. Building cars in the EU is not a cheap wage haven.
radler63 1:54AM (2/05/2009)
Don't be so negative. European bailout money is flowing also into U.S.A companies located here in Europe- so the net benefit is positive for GM and the U.S.A. I guess the Volt also will sel better in Europe and Japan than in the U.S.A.. I would be much cheaper for the big two (Ford+GM) to serve themselves of the European products tehy make before investing venture capital in new plants. The markets are not stable yet to do that,
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Tim 9:52AM (2/05/2009)
GM - You idiots are SO out of touch with reality. You can't even manage having an American engine in the car that is going to SAVE GM!!! Want a bunch of sell outs.
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Martin 10:43AM (2/05/2009)
FIRST engine, Not ALL engines, the FIRST set of engines. GM has already stated they will be building the Volt and it's power train in the US, but for now the engines will come from Europe.
JM 11:33AM (2/05/2009)
"GM has already stated they will be building the Volt and it's power train in the US, but for now the engines will come from Europe."
You just contradicted yourself in one sentence.
Tim 9:19PM (2/09/2009)
They did something called strategic planning, they planned on using a Euro engine vs planning properly and using a US engine, they missed the mark, they can't plan is the point.
Rick 12:41PM (2/05/2009)
I wish they'd lose that black section below the windows. Looks like an concept translation afterthought and is ridiculous. At least on a black car, it will be hidden.
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JDred 8:49PM (2/05/2009)
Who cares where the engines are built? Obviously, it's more cost effective to have them built in a factory that is already set up to produce them rather than start from the beginning and have even more delays.
Funny how most of the critics of GM's plan are the same ones that wouldn't get an American car even if you gave it to them.
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Tim 9:30PM (2/09/2009)
Wrongo bongo, I think the Malibu and Fusion by US mfgrs are as good if not better than a Camry or Accord. GM should have hit the mark, they touted it as the savior car. I think it looks great, but the lie what the car really is. It is a Series Hybrid, NOT an
extended range electric car, now that is BS!