While Ford made a cannonball-sized splash when it announced its withdrawal from the passenger car segment, GM's slow retreat has been more akin to skipping rocks. A discontinuation here, another there.
On Thursday, GM seemingly hammered the final nails in the coffins for two more sedans in the US: the Cadillac CT6 and the Chevrolet Impala. According to the Detroit Free Press, the CT6 will exit production in January, while Impala production will wrap up at the end of February.
Roadshow reached out to the automaker to confirm this news but didn't immediately hear back. We've also reached out to Cadillac to make doubly sure this is the end of the road for the CT6, specifically. The luxury sedan, riding on a platform GM hailed as an engineering marvel earlier this decade, has had an on/off relationship with death.
The CT6 was originally included on the chopping block with other sedans such as the Chevy Cruze, Volt and Buick LaCrosse, though GM brass backtracked and said earlier this year the company was potentially looking at moving production to another plant. It's understood thus far that a final decision to discontinue the CT6 has not been made. After all, ending production and discontinuation are two different things.
Axing the Impala at Chevy will leave the brand with just a single sedan in the Malibu. GM previously wrapped up production of the Volt plug-in hybrid (a fantastic car, by the way) this past February and the last Cruze rolled out of the now-sold Lordstown assembly plant in March.
The end of CT6 and Impala production at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant will cost the plant 814 jobs. GM will offer transfers or buyouts to affected workers, according to the report citing state filings.
Overall, it's good news for the Detroit-area production plant. The facility will remain open after the UAW and GM negotiated its future in this year's labor contract negotiations. It'll be a massive hub for GM's future electric cars pointing to a handful of electric pickup trucks and an SUV slated for production at the facility.
