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GM to invest $150 million in Flint to boost heavy-duty pickup production

FLINT, Mich. — General Motors President Mark Reuss said on Wednesday that the automaker is investing about $150 million at its Flint Assembly plant in Michigan to boost production of heavy duty trucks by another 40,000 vehicles a year. Reuss announced the investment at the Flint truck assembly plant wearing a United Auto Workers pin. The Detroit automaker had announced back in February it was adding 1,000 jobs in Flint to build a new generation of heavy-duty pickup trucks. GM did not say that the latest investment would add more jobs at the plant, but Reuss said there could be opportunities to add workers as the launch of the automaker's new trucks progresses. GM has been under pressure from President Donald Trump and lawmakers of both parties to add jobs in the United States after it said last November it would idle the Chevy Cruze assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and likewise had no new products for three other U.S. manufacturing plants. The Flint investment will include upgrades to the plant's conveyors and other new tooling, and will be completed in the first half of 2020. GM has invested more than $1.6 billion in the plant since 2013. Last month, GM said it would invest $24 million to increase truck production at its assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which makes Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra models. Sales of heavy-duty pickups in the United States have grown to more than 600,000 vehicles a year, up more than 20 percent since 2013, according to industry data. Prices for luxury models can easily top $70,000. GM's Chevrolet and GMC brands have long trailed Ford's F-series heavy duty trucks in the lucrative segment. The new Chevrolet and GMC heavy duty trucks have been re-engineered to tow heavier trailers, and keep pace in what has become an arms race among the Detroit Three automakers to claim superior torque and towing capability. Related: Silverado HD vs. 2019 Ram, Ford heavy duty trucks: How they compare on paper

2025 GMC Terrain spy photos show it inside and out

Chevy recently introduced the redesigned 2025 Equinox, but GMC has, so far, been silent about the Terrain, the Equinox's fraternal twin. But it does seem that there is a redesigned 2025 GMC Terrain on the way. These spy photos show the new model, and they reveal that the GMC will be even more distinct from the Equinox with this generation than the previous ones. From the outside, what we can see suggests the new Terrain will be more evolutionary than the Equinox. It still has a fairly upright nose with a tall grille and the C-shaped headlights. Along the side, there's still a distinct kink up at the back of the door that carries into the rear quarter window and around the back. Not many details are clear at the back, but new to this Terrain are visible exhaust outlets, a pair of rectangular ones sitting in cutouts at the base of the bumper. The inside is a massive change from the current model, and one that is quite welcome. The design clearly borrows from the also recently redesigned Acadia. It's centered around a monolithic screen with a center control knob and a set of physical switches at the screen's base. There doesn't seem to be much panel on either side of the screen, so the air vents may sit at the top of the screen. The instrument cluster is another screen, but a wide landscape-oriented example. The rest of the dash will probably be channeling some modern industrial looks with rectangular, horizontal and beveled panels. Since the new Equinox is launching this year, we're expecting this Terrain to launch this year, too, or ever so slightly later. It should be revealed in a few months to fit that launch window. It will undoubtedly get the same new platform used by the gas-powered Equinox, along with the turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder with 175 horsepower. All-wheel and front-wheel drive should be on offer with an eight-speed automatic or CVT respectively. The GMC will also surely get a luxurious Denali trim and an off-road-oriented AT4 trim, the latter of which will probably get the addition of amber marker lights over the wheel arches like on the pickup trucks and the Acadia AT4. Related Video:

Meet Alex Archer, the engineer behind GM's power-sliding center console

In 2009, a GM manager complained to a 59-year-old GM technician about the hassle of retrieving items from a pickup truck bed after driving shifted the cargo. In two days, the tech had come up with the ideas that, ten years later, would debut as the MultiPro tailgate. The engineering teams kept the tailgate secret in part by hiding mock-ups in a locked storage closet in GM's Vehicle Engineering Center in Warren Michigan for two years. A piece in the Detroit Free Press reveals that another storage closet in Warren would play the same role in a different cloak-and-dagger operation, this time for the power-sliding center console in GM's new full-sized SUVs. During a meeting in early 2017, bosses gave the job of the console's creation to 24-year-old design release engineer Alex Archer, just two years out of Stanford University with a degree in engineering and product design.  This time, the catalyst for the feature was an internal GM think tank called co:lab, where employees suggest ideas. Execs gave Archer the task because "They needed someone willing to ask a lot of questions," her 36-month mandate to produce a six-way console that could be a standard cubby or a gaping maw able to swallow four gallon jugs or hide a secret compartment. Clearly, she succeeded. It took Archer and the team nine months to devise a prototype, another six months to get the green light for production. As with the tailgate, the team working on the console grew to include designers, production engineers, and suppliers. Archer, now 26, shepherded the process, and her name is on the patent. "It took a ton of people, I'm just somebody who stuck with it the whole time," she said. GM like her work well enough to produce the "Day in the Life" segment above, five months before the world would hear about the console. Archer's path to engineering was as unlikely as getting the job for the console. She had entered Stanford with plans to be a doctor. But an innovation class during her freshman year, and a sophomore summer spent helping her grandfather rebuild a 1937 MG engine recharted her course. Her grandfather told her, "You know, you could be an engineer for a car company." Consumer reaction to Archer's work won't be far off, the SUVs slated to hit dealerships soon. Meanwhile, she's busy on something that could be just as intense as the console: Restoring a 1955 Packard Clipper in her garage. Head to Freep to check out the story of Archer and the console. Related Video: