On March 22, General Motors announced that it will be marketing the fully electric Chevrolet Blazer EV and Equinox EV, and Cadillac Lyriq in Mexico.
The three EV introductions to the GM portfolio in Mexico are part of the company's electrification strategy at a global level.
“These models are an example of where our company is headed in Mexico and we are proud that two of the models that we announce here, the Blazer EV and the Equinox EV, will be produced for the world at our plant in Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila,” said Héctor Villarreal, Vice President of Sales, Service and Marketing of GM of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
Coming from the Spring Hill Assembly Plant in Tennessee, the 2024 Cadillac Lyriq will be the first EV built on the Ultium platform to arrive in Mexico.
A few weeks ago, Cadillac announced a price of MXN 1,899,000 as it launched the Lyriq pre-sale, with the first units being delivered to customers in Q3 2023.
The Chevrolet Blazer EV will be available in Mexico in Q1 2024, the first one built on the Ultium platform in Mexico.
The Chevrolet Equinox EV is also built on the Ultium platform in Ramos Arizpe.
The exact prices and dates of arrival in the Mexican market for the Equinox EV and Blazer EV will be announced at a later date.
Equinox (Chevrolet)
On February 21, General Motors informed its St. Catharines, Ontario workforce that, subject to completing support agreements with federal and Ontario government partners, the company plans to make investments at the plant to manufacture new Ultium electric drive units for GM’s fast growing electric vehicle lineup.
This investment plan would be expected to support around 500 jobs at the St. Catharines facility and enable the production of more than 400,000 EV drive units a year.
GM Canada is currently engaged with the Ontario and federal governments and expects to complete discussions later in 2023.
The drive units built at St. Catharines will be used in vehicles built on GM’s Ultium EV architecture, including the Chevrolet Equinox EV, Blazer EV, and Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV and Hummer SUV EV, all entering the North American market in 2023, as well as the currently available Cadillac Lyriq.
The St. Catherines facility currently builds:
• 5.3L and 6.2L V8 Engines (full-size trucks and SUVs, Chevrolet Camaro)
• 3.6L V6 Engines (midsize SUVs, Cadillac CT4-V)
• Six-speed transmission (Chevrolet Equinox)
• 8-speed Dual Clutch Transmission (Chevrolet Corvette)
On a January 31 earnings results call, GM CFO Paul Jacobson said the company's fourth battery cell manufacturing plant intended for New Carlisle, Indiana is "very much on track" despite the recent end of plans to develop it with LG Energy Solution.
"We're going to have far more than four plants as we go through this journey. So this is a pretty ordered approach over time," Jacobson said, though he did not specify what company GM would be partnered with on the plant.
Jacobson did note that capacity has been expanded at two other Ultium Cells plants planned with LG Energy Solution.
The Ultium Cells plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, will open later in 2023 and a third plant under construction in Delta Township near Lansing, Michigan will open in 2024, are joining the Warren plant which is now open in Lordstown, Ohio.
Besides current EV production, the company is launching the Chevrolet Silverado EV, Equinox EV and Blazer EV in 2023.
"We'll obviously be at a significantly higher run rate in the back half of this year than what we're starting and it's really all indexed to cell capacity," Jacobson said. "As we ramp up Lordstown and continue to move forward on plants two and three."