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Nothing says “All-Electric Future” like a massive investment in big, powerful, gas-gulping internal combustion engines (ICE). In an announcement today by General Motors, the writing on the wall became clear – EVs are becoming a quickly fading fad.
GM said in its announcement that this massive new round of funding is the largest single investment the company has ever made in an engine plant. That’s a pretty bold statement since back in 2023, the company announced about half a billion dollars to build new gas engines. If our math is right, the total investment by GM in the past couple of years in new V8 gas engines has now reached $1,388,000,000.
“Our significant investments in GM’s Tonawanda Propulsion plant show our commitment to strengthening American (Gasoline-Powered Vehicle ) manufacturing and supporting jobs in the U.S.,” said Mary Barra, Chair and CEO. “GM’s Buffalo plant has been in operation for 87 years and is continuing to innovate the (Gas-powered) engines we build there to make them more fuel efficient and higher performing, which will help us deliver world-class (Gas-powered) trucks and SUVs to our customers (who clearly want gas-powered vehicles) for years to come.” We added the parts inside the parentheses.
GM is not holding back on any resources to build an entirely new generation of big gas engines. The announcement specifically mentions new machinery, equipment, and tools, as well as facility renovations.
“This investment marks an exciting new chapter for our plant,” said Tara Wasik, plant director at Tonawanda. “For generations, our team has demonstrated its commitment to manufacturing excellence. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue supporting the Western New York community and steadfast in our mission to deliver world-class (gas-powered) propulsion systems to our customers.”
GM’s New York plant also helps to illustrate why America is opting not to give up on manufacturing and simply import Chinese EVs dumped into our market. Here’s a snippet of GM’s history in this location:
(During WWII) The plant paused manufacturing of consumer car engines and converted its assembly lines to build 14- and 18-cylinder Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines for Allied planes like the P-61 Black Widow Night Fighter, the B-24 Liberator, and the P-47 Thunderbolt. Around the same time, a new 750,000 sq. ft. aviation engine facility was built on the Tonawanda property, owned by the U.S. government and operated by Chevrolet. Over 64,000 aircraft engines were produced at the new site. In 1943, Tonawanda produced 10% of all U.S.-built aircraft engines.
Clearly, GM is turning the ship around and returning to gas engine production as EVs see their swan song moment in the U.S. Here are some stories from our peers that are related to this topic.
“GM scrapping its $300 million EV motor production plan at its Tonawanda engine plant in Buffalo.”
“General Motors suspends production at two plants due to low demand for electric vehicles.”
John Goreham is a long-standing member of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John’s by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools.
Archival image of GM’s Mark Reuss speaking about GM’s all-electric future courtesy of General Motors Media Page. Archival image of GM’s aircraft engine operations courtesy of GM media page.
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Source: torquenews.com
