General Motors is reportedly laying off 100 workers at its Orion Assembly Plant north of Detroit beginning this summer as sales lag for its smaller cars.
DETROIT, MI - General Motors is reportedly laying off 100 workers at its Orion Assembly Plant north of Detroit beginning this summer as sales lag for its smaller cars.
Automotive News reports the layoffs comes as the Detroit automaker scales back its production of small cars there from 33 units an hour to 26 an hour - a 21 percent decrease.
GM currently produces the Buick Verano and Chevrolet Sonic at the Orion plant, which employs about 1,600 hourly workers and 200 salaried ones.
In the first five months of this year, sales of the Buick Verano dropped 16 percent on an annual basis to 15,279 units. During that same period, sales of the Chevrolet Sonic fell 29 percent to 29,082 units.
In November, GM confirmed it was laying off 160 workers at the Orion site because of lagging sales of the smaller cars. Lower fuel prices have been pushing many consumers toward SUVs, trucks and other larger vehicles.
The layoffs at Orion will begin in July and continue through the end of the year, Automotive News reports.
Meanwhile, GM is investing $160 million into the plant to prepare for production of the Chevrolet Bolt EV in 2017. It is not clear how many workers, if any, would be hired to support the electric car's production.
The Chevrolet Bolt was unveiled as a concept last January in Detroit, but in February Alan Batey, General Motors executive vice president and president of North America, said at the Chicago Auto Show the Bolt will go in to production "as quickly as we possibly can."
Batey said the Bolt will be sold in all 50 states, and will be built at GM's Orion Assembly.
GM says the all-electric vehicle gets a range of 200 miles. It will be priced at about $30,000.
David Muller is the automotive and business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter