GM is building pre-production Hummer EVs at Factory ZERO, hiring to follow

The assembly line at General Motors' Factory ZERO has started rolling even as the automaker continues plant construction, which it says will be "ongoing" for a period of time to prepare for more vehicles to be built there.

The initial vehicles coming down the line now are 2022 GMC Hummer all-electric pickups. They are pre-production models, not for public sale yet. 

But GM will start building sellable models at Factory ZERO soon, union and GM officials said.

The plant, located in both Detroit and Hamtramck, has been undergoing $2.2 billion in retooling for 18 months so that GM can build all-electric vehicles there by year end.

"We’re doing a lot of building of the Hummer now," UAW Local 22 President Wiley Turnage told the Free Press Monday. "We’ve still got construction going on. But they have a few of them on the streets now."

Local 22 represents the plant's hourly workforce. About 435 workers at the plant are making the pre-production models, confirmed GM spokesman David Barnas.

“We are on track to deliver the first GMC Hummer EVs to customers by the end of the year," Barnas said.

GMC has about 10,000 pre-orders for the Hummer EV pickup, which starts at $112,595 for Edition 1. 

GM has said it will eventually employ 2,200 people at Factory ZERO, but it is unclear when it will start hiring.

"Moving forward, we will ramp up employment through 2022 as we increase production," Barnas said.

First, the union wants to bring back those workers who had staffed the assembly line previously.

"Right now, we have 140 people that are laid off that have recall rights," Turnage said.

Recall rights means that when GM idled the factory last year, those 140 people chose to either not transfer to another GM plant permanently or did not retire. Therefore, they were laid off and will be recalled to work at Factory ZERO when it restarts.

About 130 workers retired and 684 workers transferred to other GM plants such as Flint Assembly or Fort Wayne Assembly in Indiana, union leaders have said. 

Those workers with recall rights will likely return in the first quarter, Turnage said. 

"After that we’ll have to see how many people we’ll need," Turnage said. "We’re not doing any hiring now because we have people on layoff. We’re going to need people, but it’s hard to say how fast and how often we’ll be bringing people in."

Barnas said after GM launches the Hummer EVs, it will be retooling Factory ZERO in preparation for the production of more vehicles.

In 2018, GM said it would permanently close the facility. But during the 2019 UAW contract talks, amid a 40-day nationwide strike, GM agreed to refit it to build EVs.

On Feb. 27, 2020, the last Chevrolet Impala sedan rolled off the assembly line. GM has since designed a plant that it says will be one of the most advanced in the world, full of firsts. For instance, it will run on 5G wireless technology, which allows robots, machines and computers to talk more smoothly with each other.

Besides the Hummer pickup, GM will build the self-driving Cruise Origin, the 2023 Hummer SUV, which will start at $105,595 for Edition 1, and the Silverado E electric pickup at Factory ZERO.

More:GMC reveals Hummer EV SUV: What it will cost, include

GM is not providing a launch date for the Silverado E, but last week GM President Mark Reuss said the vehicle will start production after the Hummer SUV starts production in the first quarter of 2023.

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Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.