General Motors investing $290 million in Corvette plant
To Corvette enthusiasts,聽Bowling聽Green, Kentucky, is a special place. It is, after all, home to both the National Corvette Museum and the plant that builds the Corvette. And if the latest announcement is any indication, the Corvette plant will be running for quite some time.
General聽Motors聽has announced that it will invest $290 million in the Bowling Green Assembly plant. That's a lot better news than historic Corvettes聽.
Some of the investment will be used to upgrade and modify the plant鈥檚 vehicle assembly operations with new technologies and processes. A total of $153 million has already been earmarked for an application to participate in the Kentucky Business Incentive (KBI). We don't know what the KBI does, but that seems awfully expensive.
The investment is in addition to the last year's聽聽in the construction and startup of a new 450,000-square-foot paint shop. GM says the latest facility improvements are scheduled to begin this summer.
Though it hasn鈥檛 been mentioned by the automaker, all these upgrades may hint at the arrival of the next-generation C8 Corvette which the last we heard is聽. This new Corvette is聽聽and be built in both left- and right-hand-drive configurations, helping GM to expand sales around the globe for the first time.
A clue comes from a comment made by Kentucky鈥檚 Lt. Gov. Crit Luallen during the previous investment announcement in the Corvette plant.
鈥淭he Corvette is one of Kentucky鈥檚 most-cherished icons,鈥� she said. 鈥淪uch a significant expansion of the Bowling Green assembly plant will help the聽company聽remain competitive in the region and around the world.鈥�
Corvette production moved to Bowling Green in 1981. The Corvette had previously been built in in Flint, Michigan, and St. Louis, Missouri. Built since 1953, the Corvette is world鈥檚 longest-running, continuously produced passenger car.
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