General Motors announced an additional $45 million investment at its Bedford, Indiana aluminum die-casting foundry to expand the facility's production capacity of EV drive unit castings.
This comes on top of the previous $51 million investment, announced in December 2021, to prepare the Bedford Casting Operations for the upcoming Chevrolet Silverado EV model. At the time, it was already producing parts for the GMC Hummer EV Pickup.
According to the company, the entire manufacturing footprint must be strengthened to support the transformation toward an all-electric future.
The site in Bedford must be ready for the anticipated strong demand for the new electric pickups, providing higher production output as well as the flexibility to still produce traditional components.
Work at the facility will begin immediately, which indicates that the company is confident in the necessity of the expansion.
Let's recall that GM has more than 150,000 reservations for the Chevrolet Silverado EV model alone (as of July), and there is also the GMC Sierra version coming, plus the GMC Hummer EVs (80,000+ reservations for the pickup and SUV.)
Phil Kienle, GM vice president of North America manufacturing and labor relations said:
“Our Bedford operation is one of the leading aluminum die casting facilities in the world and this additional investment is really an investment in the Bedford team and their commitment to excellence. This investment helps build job security for our Bedford team for years to come as we continue to prepare our entire manufacturing footprint for an all-electric future."
General Motors adds that since 2011, $456 million was invested in Bedford Casting Operations.
Gallery: GM Bedford Casting Operations
Considering how quickly the EV market is expanding, we will probably see many more rounds of expansion of this and other sites to handle mass electrification.
The US is currently experiencing a pretty strong boost of investments thanks to EVs - with a double-digit number of new battery factories under construction, new EV manufacturing plants, new AC and DC charging factories as well as electric motors and power electronics plants.
