General Motors is planning to ramp up production of heavy-duty pickup trucks in Michigan this summer amid strong demand for gas-powered pickups despite elevated fuel prices.
GM is planning to operate its Flint Assembly plant six days a week, up from five, starting in June to produce more trucks to meet demand.
The facility produces the heavy-duty versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, known as the 2500 and 3500.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Flint Assembly plant’s workers will be mandated into overtime hours to cover the additional day of production. About 4,200 hourly workers are employed at the facility.
GM’s plan to increase domestic production comes as it and other automakers are moving to increase production at U.S. facilities to avoid the Trump administration’s tariffs on imported vehicles, including those made at automakers’ facilities in Canada.
The Journal reported that GM’s heavy-duty Silverado is also made at the company’s Oshawa Assembly plant in Ontario, Canada, which lost a third shift of production in late January – a move that the Canadian autoworkers union blamed on tariffs.
Consumer demand for pickup trucks and SUVs has remained strong despite the recent rise in fuel prices amid the supply disruptions stemming from the Iran war inhibiting oil shipments from the Middle East through the Strait of Hormuz.
Last month, GM CFO Paul Jacobson noted that historically, consumers don’t start to reconsider their preference for pickups or SUVs that have less economical gas mileage until oil and gas prices have been elevated for an extended period of time.
“Usually it takes four to six months of sustained high oil prices before people start to think, ‘Maybe I should go for less mileage, or maybe I should buy down,’ I don’t think we see that,” Jacobson said at a Bank of America conference.
Gas prices have surged in recent weeks as oil prices were jolted higher by supply disruptions related to the war in Iran.
The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.06 on Wednesday, up over 36% from $2.98 a month ago. Diesel is up to an average price of $5.49 a gallon from $3.76 a month ago, an increase of nearly 46%.
General Motors shares are more than 1.5% in midday trading and are down 7% year to date.
Reuters contributed to this report.
