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GM investing $167m in Spring Hill for new midsize vehicles

General Motors has announced a large investment in its Spring Hill, Tennessee facility. The former home of Saturn production will be getting a $167 million addition to a previously announced $183 million, to cover a pair of new midsize vehicles. The investment is expected to create 1,800 jobs at the factory.
That $350 million is being divvied up for a pair of programs at Spring Hill. The first will take the bulk of the money ($223 million) and create 1,000 of the 1,800 jobs, while the other will take the remaining $127 million and generate the leftover 800 positions. But GM says the investment will cover "midsize vehicle programs." So what could they be?
The leading candidate in our minds is a new crossover for Buick, called the Anthem, that will slot between the Encore and Enclave, but will be slightly smaller than the Equinox and Terrain. As we've explained, the new model will likely be the first product to sport GM's new D2UX platform, which will eventually replace both the Delta and Theta platforms. Spring Hill is already building the Equinox, so there could be some credence to this theory.

2021 Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon facelift spied

The Chevy Colorado and its GMC Canyon twin have been on sale for a good long time now, and while things move a little more slowly on the truck side when it comes to facelifts and model changeovers, it seems like it’s about time. So itÂ’s no surprise to see some lightly camouflaged trucks running around ahead of what appears to be a minor refresh for the 2021 model year. Starting with the Colorado, it appears to have a bowtie hiding behind some camo in the center of the grille, which otherwise looks like the no-bowtie option you can get on 2019-and-up trucks. It could be that Chevy is keeping the no-bowtie grille design but allowing a bowtie to grace it, or it could be misdirection. Either way, the grille pattern adds a bit of flair to the otherwise staid front end design. There also appears to be a bit more shape to the lower air inlet, with echoes of some of the lower fascias of its bigger Silverado stablemate. The Canyon, on the other hand, shows more extensive front-end changes. At first glance, it looks to emulate some variants of the GMC Sierra, which would make sense given those modelsÂ’ changes for the 2020 model year. In particular, this Canyon has hints of Sierra HD, being more square and monolithic than the regular Sierra 1500s, although itÂ’s a little hard to tell with the camo covering the edges of the grille. It could certainly also adopt more rounded corners like the 1500s. Either way, itÂ’s more vertical and thereÂ’s less differentiation between the upper grille and lower opening. ThereÂ’s nothing in the way of changes around the sides or back, and while there may be some minor changes inside, we arenÂ’t expecting any. The word around town is that this isnÂ’t a full facelift, but rather a minor front end tweak thatÂ’ll just be a regular part of the model-year changeover. 

This is how GM is hiding new Chevy Volt in public

General Motors is letting the public know that, well, it's not about to let the public know anything else about the next-generation Chevrolet Volt. But the automaker is willing to talk about its camouflaging process for upcoming versions of the extended-range plug-in. So it's a half-hearted secret, at best. GM actually has a "camouflage engineer" charged with creating ways to disguise the styling of new vehicles. In the Volt's case, the company is applying black and white swirly color patterns on top of the materials, such as plastics, vinyl and foam, that are used liberally across the body. It's all part of a teaser campaign that started last month with pictures of part the 2016 Volt. Earlier this month, GM said it was keeping track of Volt drivers' habits as it works on the next-gen model. The company noted that more than four out of five trips are being made in all-electric driving mode, and that 60 percent of Volt owners use a plain-old 100-volt outlet to recharge their cars. The car is slated to make its global debut at Detroit's North American International Auto Show next January, and the early word is that performance and all-electric range will be improved (we should hope so). The car will also be sleeker. By how much, we can't tell yet, because of those darn swirly patterns. GM's got more non-details in its press release below. Engineers charged with hiding styling while vehicle testing proceeds in public DETROIT – The styling of the next-generation Chevrolet Volt is one of the automotive world's best-kept secrets. Keeping customers and media eager to see the successor to the groundbreaking original at bay until the new Volt debuts at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January is tricky business. First, it is engineers, not designers, who are charged with creating camouflage that balances styling secrecy with the need to validate the Volt and its systems in public. "If it were up to me it would be a shoebox driving down the road," said Lionel Perkins, GM camouflage engineer. "The design team wants us to cover more of the vehicle and the engineering team needs to have enough of the vehicle's weight and aero exposed so that the tests in the development process are consistent with the product that will come to market." The engineers responsible for the "cool" designs covering the car might deserve style points but their efforts are intended strictly to hide the metal beneath.