Is General Motors About to Copy Ford's Aluminum F-150? - Motley Fool
said this week that it will spend $877 million on major upgrades to a factory in Michigan that makes its hot-selling Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks. It's unusual for an automaker to make major investments in a factory when it isn't gearing up to launch an all-new model. The Silverado and Sierra were all-new for 2014, and their replacements aren't expected until 2019. But this $877 million announcement follows an earlier $600 million commitment by GM to upgrade the factory in Flint, Mich. I think it's about taking a page from Ford and its all-new F-150. GM has been watching Ford's F-150 launch very carefully. That's because building an aluminum-bodied vehicle requires very different tooling and processes than building one with a steel body. In order to build the new F-150, Ford needed to make big and expensive changes to the two factories that build its top-selling pickup. That was expensive in more ways than one: Not only was the tooling expensive, but both of those factories run nearly around the clock. Ford has been scrambling to make up the shortfall. So far, its launch of the new F-150 has gone quite well -- but one of the downsides of Ford's strategy is that sales of the F-Series were down for months because of short supplies. Source: www.fool.com
