2006 Chevrolet Monte Carlo on 2040-cars

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Cadillac CT6 production ceases January 2020 as part of D-Ham layoffs

General Motors filed paperwork under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act with Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity this week, detailing events to come at the automaker's Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant. Starting February 28, 814 salaried and hourly workers at D-Ham, as its called, will be laid off. The 753 workers represented by the UAW will begin receiving offers in January to relocate to facilities in Michigan and Ohio, or buyout offers. As the 4-million-square-foot plant winds down through April 3 to a skeleton crew, the Cadillac CT6 ceases production in January 2020, and the last Chevrolet Impala comes off the line on February 28. The loss of the CT6 represents the end of Cadillac's latest brief, and highly regarded, adventure into flagship sedans. It might also mean the end of the 4.2-liter Blackwing twin-turbo V8 engine, at least for the moment. Both casualties are calamities. The death of the Impala closes the door on a nameplate in production for 52 years since 1957, having started off as a top-tier trim for the 1958 Bel Air known as the Bel Air Impala, once advertised with the line, "Lets you know you're the boss." As part of the new four-year labor agreement with the UAW, GM is keeping D-Ham open to build a new line of battery-electric vehicles, ultimately investing $3 billion and tripling employment to 2,225 workers when fully operational. The agreement described the coming EV as a "van" that would commence production in late 2021, but various reports say what's actually coming is a range of premium EVs in pickup and SUV bodystyles under the program codename BT1. The easy predictions put an electric GMC Sierra and Cadillac Escalade among the EV fold, but not until 2023, according to auto industry forecaster LMC Automotive. Before that, LMC claims an electric van will debut in late 2021, along with a battery-powered rebirth of the Hummer brand in pickup and SUV forms, also in late 2021. 

Next-gen Chevy Camaro ZL1 teases big changes under its camo

With work complete on the lighter, stiffer 2016 Camaro, it's time for Chevrolet's engineers to really start having fun by developing the next, ZL1 version. Here it is for the first time. Unfortunately, the muscle car is still wearing quite a bit of camouflage, but the concealment isn't enough to hide some of the meaner model's more obvious performance tweaks. Starting from the front, this Camaro now wears a much more aggressive front fascia with bigger air inlets. Managing the airflow around the engine bay is clearly a big deal because another photo reveals a fairly large extractor in the hood, as well. Moving down the profile, the lower side sills and orientation of the camo suggest some blistered fenders in the back to cover wider rubber, and at the very rear a much larger wing further suggests the need to keep things planted to the road. Check out the comparison images in the gallery for a better look at the tweaks. What will power the next ZL1 is still entirely a mystery, although sticking with a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 could be a possibility, especially if you take the big extractor in the hood as a hint. Whereas the current ZL1 makes 580 horsepower and 556 pound-feet of torque, the LT4 in the latest Cadillac CTS-V pumps out 640 hp and 630 lb-ft. Combined with the Camaro's other improvements, we're thinking that this new ZL1 will be quite a hot ticket, and based on these spy shots, we can't wait to find out.

GM may kill 6 car models as it works with UAW to tackle sales slump

The president of the United Auto Workers union said on Thursday the union is talking with General Motors about the potential threat to plants and jobs from slumping U.S. car sales. GM's response will be more trucks and SUVs, and sources say at least six slow-selling car models may be killed off. "We are talking to (GM) right now about the products that they currently have" at underused car plants such as Hamtramck in Michigan and Lordstown in Ohio, and whether they might be replaced with newer, more popular vehicles such as crossovers, Dennis Williams told reporters. "We are tracking it (and) we are addressing it," Williams added. GM has cut shifts at several U.S. plants this year as inventories of unsold cars have ballooned. Industry analysts said more jobs could be at risk as the automaker wrestles with permanently shrinking production of small and midsized sedans. GM is reviewing whether to cancel at least six passenger cars in the U.S. market after 2020, including the Chevrolet Volt hybrid, which could be replaced in 2022 with a new gasoline-electric crossover model, Reuters has learned from people familiar with the plans. Other GM cars at risk include the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6, Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Impala and Chevrolet Sonic, sources said. Some analysts have singled out GM's Hamtramck plant in Detroit as one of the most vulnerable because of plummeting car sales. The plant, which opened in 1985, builds four slow-selling models: Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Impala, Cadillac CT6 and Chevrolet Volt. In the first half, it built fewer than 35,000 cars, down 32 percent from the same period in 2016, according to suppliers familiar with GM's U.S. production schedule. The typical GM assembly plant builds 200,000-300,000 vehicles a year.COMING ATTRACTIONS: TRUCKS AND SUVS GM must "create some innovative new products" to replace slow-selling sedans "or start closing plants," said Sam Fiorani, vice president of AutoForecast Solutions. The auto maker already has begun to shift future production plans from cars to trucks, according to Morgan Stanley auto analyst John Murphy. He estimates that fewer than 10 percent of the new vehicle models that GM will introduce over the next four years will be passenger cars, with the rest divided among trucks, SUVs and crossovers. GM plans to add production of the new Cadillac XT4 crossover next year to its Malibu sedan plant in Fairfax, Kansas.