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GM cutting Chevy Sonic, Buick Verano production by more than 20%

General Motors' Orion Assembly plant in Michigan is seeing even more production cuts this year to further reduce inventories of the Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano. These latest adjustments mean layoffs for about 100 workers in phases starting in July. "GM Orion Assembly will adjust plant production capacity to better align with market demand," the company said in a statement announcing the change. Through May, sales of the Sonic are down 28.5 percent to 29,082 vehicles, and the Verano is off 15.6 percent, with 15,279 sold this year. According to unnamed plant insiders speaking to Automotive News, the assembly rate is slowing at Orion Assembly from the current 33 cars an hour down to 26 an hour, a 21-percent reduction. GM is also reportedly going to keep the plant idle for three weeks during the normal summer shutdown, rather than the usual two. Earlier in the year, the factory was idled for two weeks due to excess supply of the Sonic and Verano. In March, it was closed again for several days for the same reason. The Orion Assembly plant is the future home to the line for the Chevy Bolt EV. GM Statement: GM Orion Assembly will adjust plant production capacity to better align with market demand. A phased layoff of approximately 100 employees will begin in July 2015 and conclude by year-end. Related Video: News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Bill Pugliano / Getty Images Plants/Manufacturing Buick Chevrolet GM Hatchback Sedan buick verano orion assembly

Mark Reuss: GM can't afford product 'misses,' has 'thought about' CT6 V-Series

Mark Reuss is a busy man. He oversees General Motors' global product portfolio, an all-encompassing task for a company that sold more than 9.9 million cars and trucks last year. When GM launches a well-received product, like the road-going rocket ship that is the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 – he gets credit. When the company stumbles with the slow-selling Chevy Malibu or grapples with fallout from the decade-old Saturn Ion and its flawed ignition switch, he gets blamed. GM owners, the press and sometimes the federal government, demand answers. Bob Lutz famously held the job before Reuss. So did Mary Barra, who's now GM's chief executive. There's a New GM, but the lineage is connected to a long history. When he's not thinking product, Reuss, an executive vice president, also runs the purchasing and supply chain for the company, which is still one of the largest industrial empires in the world. We caught up with Reuss on the floor of the New York Auto Show, where GM had just rolled out two crucial new products: the 2016 Cadillac CT6 and the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu. Speaking with a small group of reporters, Reuss delved into a variety of subjects, including the new Malibu, Cadillac's future (he thinks the ATS-V is going to "flame the M3 and M4"), and other topics. On fixing the Malibu: "We can't miss. We can't have those kinds of misses [like the previous generation] on our cars and crossovers and trucks. We can't do that. If we do that, we give a reason for someone to go buy something else. It's that simple. "On a car like the Malibu we have a chance to really fix all of that, which we have, and then lead. Then you've got a real opportunity there. So that's what we've really been focused on here – to fix those things." He later added: "We need that car here to transform Chevrolet desperately because it's the heart of the market. And when you think of Chevrolet, people will come back and think about what we did with the [new] Malibu and the Cruze... It's hugely important to us." On Cadillac: "If we go out and try and out-German the Germans, it's probably not going to work. We've got an opportunity here generationally where there's a lot of people younger than me that have parents that drove BMWs and Mercedes, and I think there's an opportunity there for those people to drive something different than what their parents did, and I think that's always been an opportunity in the auto industry if you look at the history of it.

GM to build outgoing Silverado and Sierra until late 2019

As it has done with previous generations, General Motors is keeping the outgoing versions of its 1500 pickups in production despite the arrival of the all-new 2019 Chevrolet Silverado and 2019 GMC Sierra. The production of the previous, K2 generation models will begin to be wound down gradually, according to Automotive News, starting with crew cabs "early next year," and double and regular cab models following during "the early second half of next year." The old model trucks will continue to be built into "late 2019" based on market demand, GM's spokesperson Kim Carpenter said. The Chevrolet will go by the name Silverado LD, with the GMC Sierra designation still to be announced. Some of the outgoing models are built by sharing the assembly work between two GM plants. Partially finished Silverado and Sierra double cab bodies are shipped from Fort Wayne, Ind., to Oshawa, Ont., where the trucks are completed, including receiving paint. This eases the workload in Fort Wayne, where production of the new T1 generation trucks started in July 2018. In January, the Silao plant in Mexico will take on the duties of building new generation regular cab and crew cab trucks. Carpenter also said that the "Oshawa shuttle," as the shared production is called, has been very successful. As a result, 60,000 more trucks will be built than what the original production forecast initially called for. GM's latest quarterly profits, disclosed last week to be $1 billion, have been far higher than expected and will result in full-year profits far higher than what had been predicted in light of steel tariffs. GM isn't the only truck maker taking a similar multi-generation approach for 2019. Both the outgoing and redesigned Ram 1500 are in production, with the previous generation being dubbed Ram 1500 Classic. Related Video: