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GM investing $439 million in Corvette plant

General Motors is slowly trickling out announcements about its $5.4 billion in US plant upgrades over the next three years. The latest one is something that fans of one of America's most beloved sports car will be happy about. The Bowling Green, KY, factory that assembles the Chevrolet Corvette is receiving $439 million of those funds to build a new paint shop. Covering 450,000 square-feet, the site will make painting the 'Vette more efficient and environmentally friendly. The upgrades there include robots that use paint more effectively, technology to eliminate sludge water, LED lighting to improve inspections, and less energy-intensive baking ovens. While the groundbreaking is already complete for the building, full construction is expected to begin this summer and take two years. This is the biggest upgrade for the Kentucky factory in a few years. In preparation for the latest Corvette, the Bowling Green plant received $131 million in 2011 for upgrades and to add more workers there. Related Video: Chevrolet Corvette Plant Gets $439 Million in Upgrades New, environment-friendly paint shop drives efficient production, retains 150 jobs 2015-05-21 BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Torch Red, Shark Gray Metallic and Laguna Blue Tintcoat, three popular palate choices on the 2015 Corvette, kept the marketers who make up names working late. Now they can dream about more painstakingly precise pigments, thanks to a new paint shop that is among $439 million being invested at the only plant in the world that builds Chevrolet's iconic sports car. General Motors announced the moves today that include retaining 150 jobs and building the 450,000 square-foot paint shop that is almost half the size of the entire current production facility. The investment builds on approximately $135 million GM has invested in the plant over the last four years for the new Corvette Stingray and Performance Build Center. The announcement was followed by a groundbreaking event for the new paint shop. "The Corvette is one of Kentucky's most-cherished icons," said. Lt. Gov. Crit Luallen. "Such a significant expansion of the Bowling Green Assembly Plant will help the company remain competitive in the region and around the world." Construction of the new paint shop, which includes substantial technology upgrades, is planned to begin this summer and take approximately two years to complete. Corvette production schedules will be unaffected by the construction.

2020 Chevy Trax and Buick Encore spied testing

We just recently saw a little crossover SUV from General Motors being tested, and we weren't positive what brand it belonged to. We narrowed it down to Chevy or GMC, but we're feeling more confident that it's a GMC now, since both the next generation Chevy Trax and Buick Encore subcompact crossover SUVs have been spied testing together. Of the two, the Chevy has the more radically different sheet metal. It ditches the somewhat frumpy, lumpy shape of the current Trax for a body inspired by the bigger Chevy Blazer. The roofline has sharp corners, and the hood is wide and flat. The front fascia, though obscured, shows the most connection to the bigger crossover. It has the same split headlight configuration, and it looks as though the grille takes up a sizable section of the fascia. View 7 Photos The Buick Encore on the other hand looks evolutionary in design. The body still has plenty of curves, and the distinctive, sharply rising window sill are all hallmarks of the current Encore design. The headlights and grille are similar, too, though the grille appears to be slightly updated to fit in with the Enclave and Regal. It's understandable that Buick might want to play it safe with the new Encore, since the model is Buick's best seller, selling about 23,000 units in the last quarter, nearly twice that of the next best performer, the Enclave. Since this is the first time we've seen these little crossovers, we expect it will still be a year or two before we get to see them fully revealed. They will probably continue to use small-displacement turbocharged four-cylinder engines with either front- or all-wheel drive. Related Video:

2023 Chevrolet Silverado HD reportedly getting mammoth torque

Chevrolet just gave the light-duty Silverado a significant round of updates. It hasn't detailed the changes it has in store for the heavy-duty model yet, but a recent report claims the truck will arrive with significant engine upgrades. Without citing sources, website TFL Truck reported that the current pickup's 6.6-liter Duramax turbodiesel V8 will return in the updated model. Its displacement won't increase, but its output will reportedly grow to 505 horsepower and a mammoth 1,085 pound-feet of torque. To put those figures into perspective, the 6.6-liter makes 445 horsepower and 910 pound-feet of twist in the 2022 Silverado HD; GMC's Sierra HD is available with it as well. Bumping the Duramax's output is a way to keep up with the competition. Arch nemesis Ford offers buyers who have extremely heavy things to tow 475 horsepower and 1,050 pound-feet of torque from a 6.7-liter turbodiesel V8. Over at Ram, the most powerful engine available in a heavy-duty truck posts numbers of 420 and 1,075, respectively. If the report is accurate, Chevrolet will enviably take the horsepower and the torque crowns in the segment. What remains to be seen is what effect the increases will have on the Silverado's towing capacity. As of writing, it's capable of towing up to 36,000 pounds (approximately 15 times the weight of a 2021 Mazda MX-5 Miata). Moving out of the engine bay, the 2023 Silverado HD will receive an updated exterior design that will again help differentiate it from the smaller, light-duty model. We're expecting the next round of updates will also bring new tech features, and it's reasonable to assume that the trim structure will evolve; Chevrolet might notably shift the HD in a more outdoorsy direction to satisfy a growing demand for off-road-focused trucks in the United States. None of this is official; Chevrolet is keeping its lips sealed about the updated Silverado HD. Full details will likely emerge in the coming months, and sales are tentatively scheduled to start in time for the 2023 model year.