REPORT: GM chooses Lake Orion plant to build new small car

The Detroit News is reporting that sources at General Motors' Lake Orion, MI assembly plant have been told the plant has been selected to build a new small car for the North American market. GM had been considering Lake Orion, near Pontiac, Spring Hill, TN, and Janesville, WI. The GM board of directors may vote on the decision on Friday, with a public announcement coming soon after that. Orion Township recently upped its incentive package for the plant so that GM could get up to $100 million in tax breaks on the plant over 25 years.

The plan is to tool up the plant for volumes of 160,000 units a year of the new car. It's not known if the new car will be the Spark that debuts in 2011 or a replacement for the slightly larger Aveo. Lake Orion currently builds the Pontiac G6 and Chevy Malibu, but the G6 is going away with the Pontiac brand. It's not known if GM will maintain Malibu production in Lake Orion or consolidate it at the Fairfax, KS plant.

[Source: Detroit News]