CHICAGO -- General Motors Corp., Detroit, said Thursday it would spend $450 million to expand an engine plant and refurbish a truck assembly plant in Flint, Mich., following by hours a statement from Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich., that it would spend $300 million to expand a truck plant in Wayne, Mich.
GM executives said its investment of about $300 million at the Flint Engine South plant for production of the company's advanced global V-6 engine would add about 500,000 square feet to the facility. The plant is the company's only producer of its Vortec 4200 sixcylinder engine for midsize sport utility vehicles.
The auto giant also announced it was spending about $150 million at its Flint truck assembly plant to refurbish the facility with new machinery, tooling and equipment for future production of full-size trucks.
The two new investments will create more than 300 jobs and retain more than 3,000 existing jobs in Flint, GM said.
Executives said GM has invested more than $20 billion in its U.S. operations in the past five years, including a separate announcement in August that it was spending $60 million to upgrade its metals fabrication plant in Flint.
Separately, Ford said it would invest in a 240,000-square-foot expansion of the flexible body shop at its Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne. The investment is part of an effort to introduce flexible manufacturing into 75 percent of its body shops, trim and final assembly operations by the end of the decade.
