Along with the expanded product mandate in Oshawa, Monday’s announcement locks in funding for an $800 million retool of GM’s CAMI Assembly Plant. The nearly complete overhaul of the Ingersoll, Ont., plant, which has built the Chevrolet Equinox crossover for the past dozen years, was first announced in early 2021 and will make the plant Canada’s first large-scale EV assembly site.
CAMI is scheduled to build its final Equinox on April 29, setting the stage for a six-month retool to start the next day, according to Mike Van Boekel, Local 88 plant chairperson at Unifor, which represents CAMI’s hourly workers. Once back online late this year, the plant is expected to employ roughly 1,500 workers, he said. They will be building new BrightDrop commercial delivery vans GM recently renamed as the Zevo 600 and Zevo 400.
“General Motors’ commitment to its facilities here and its decision to set up the country’s first electric vehicle production facility highlight how Canada is the perfect home to build the cars of today and tomorrow,” François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s minister of innovation, science and industry, said in a release.