General Motors on Tuesday (Oct. 27) said it would prepare its Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant, in Michigan's capital city, to build hybrids, the kind of mid-cycle powertrain announcement one industry analyst said automakers traditionally don't make.
“This is a good step in the right direction,” John Murphy, founder of The MAP, a strategic advisory firm for the auto industry, told CDG News.
He called the announcement “historically unusual.”
Driving the news: GM said plans for the plant, which builds three-row SUVs, are one slice of the more than $2 billion GM expects to spend in the Lansing region over the next several years.
That total includes $1.25 billion GM previously announced to prepare its nearby Lansing Grand River Assembly plant for future production.
The U.S. Department of Energy and GM are restructuring a grant to fund the project, according to the release.
Model names and timing will come closer to launch, the company said.
For context: The Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave, and GMC Acadia get built at the plant, which is marking its 20th anniversary this year.
In 2025, the plant built more than 291,000 vehicles, its best year ever, according to the release.
U.S. sales of the Traverse jumped 40.1% last year to 148,278, the Enclave rose 50.6% to 39,754, and the Acadia climbed 12.3% to 55,221, according to GM's year-end sales report.
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What they're saying: Murphy said that GM has lacked meaningful large hybrid models compared with the rest of the industry, and that adding a hybrid option would help fill that gap.
Hybrids made up less than 10% of the large crossover segment in 2025, and MAP's forecast has them topping 40% by the end of the decade, Murphy said.
And, he added, the Traverse, Enclave, and Acadia together account for more than 20% of that group.
“This is an important segment that is shifting in this direction,” Murphy said.
Adding a powertrain to existing models is easier than launching an all-new hybrid, he said, but it's still complicated.
“You don’t typically get a major powertrain decision mid-cycle,” Murphy said.
He expects the automaker to move fairly quickly, possibly getting hybrids into the lineup sometime late next year.
Worth noting: GM said it will spend about $9 billion on U.S. manufacturing and more than $7 billion on U.S. research and development this year.
Investments over the past two years at Orion Assembly in Michigan, Spring Hill Assembly in Tennessee, and Fairfax Assembly in Kansas will eventually push its U.S. production to more than 2 million vehicles, according to the release.
(The company also announced today that it expects to begin trading as a Nasdaq-listed company on Nov. 17.)
Bottom line: GM has trailed rivals on hybrids. In September, Murphy’s report projected GM's hybrid share at about 9% by decade's end, compared with about 90% for Honda.
Murphy now says this move could push GM's hybrid share into the mid-teens.
“The big question is: ‘Will this be a precedent for GM launching hybrids in many other segments?’” Murphy said.
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