General Motors Corp. has announced plans to retool its Tonawanda engine plant for the production of a new clean diesel engine for its light duty pickup trucks.
According to John Buttermore, GM Powertrain vice president of global manufacturing, the automaker will invest $100 million in the plant near Buffalo to produce a 4.5-liter, V-8 Duramax high-output diesel engine for the Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra pickup and Hummer H2.
Production is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Buttermore made the announcement inside the 3.1 million-square-foot plant with Gov. Eliot Spitzer and a host of elected and union officials who strongly lobbied for the new engine in an area where other auto plants, including Delphi, Ford and American Axle, have been making job cuts.
"We are coming back," Spitzer said after helping to pull a black drape from a model of the new engine to the applause of plant workers. "We can compete. We can win. We can out-produce. We can do it with low taxes and most importantly a better work force than anyplace in the world."
The new turbo diesel engine production will retain about 150 jobs at the 70-year-old GM plant, which now makes several four-, five-, six- and eight-cylinder engines. It employs about 1,850 hourly and salaried workers.
"It's important for Tonawanda and for the entire region," Town Supervisor Ronald H. Moline said of the investment.
"We get $1 million in taxes from GM on this facility. That's important revenue," he said - adding that the larger economic impact is GM's local payroll of $250 million.
The state contributed a $1 million capital grant for the project.
With surging gasoline prices (now topping $3 per gallon), attention is on diesel engines as a way to boost fuel economy.
"This will be one of the most efficient and technically advanced diesel engines, providing a 25 percent improvement in fuel efficiency and 13 percent reduction in CO2 emissions over gasoline engines in this segment," Buttermore said, "and it does all that while still providing the performance attributes required by customers in the areas of towing and hauling loads."
The Tonawanda plant ranked as the eighth most productive engine plant in North America in a recent report by Troy, Mich.-based Harbour Consulting.
In January, GM - also maker of quality , announced that the plant will begin producing a new V-8 engine in 2009 after GM spends $300 million on renovations and equipment.
