General Motors Co. will halt production of the Chevrolet Malibu sedan this fall at its Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas to prep for production of the new Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle, the automaker confirmed Wednesday.
Production of the Cadillac XT4 small SUV will continue until the plant is shut down next year to retool for production of the Bolt.
GM previously announced it would invest about $390 million in Fairfax to make the Ultium-based Bolt. The previous generation Bolt, built at GM’s Orion Assembly plant in Lake Orion, was not based on Ultium. Production of that Bolt ended in December 2023.
“To facilitate the installation of tooling and other plant modifications, after nine-generations and over 10 million global sales, GM will end production of the Chevrolet Malibu in November 2024 and pause production of the Cadillac XT4 after January 2025,” GM spokesperson Kevin Kelly said in a statement.
Kelly said the production pause “will result in a layoff until production resumes for affected employees. Affected employees will be supported according to the provisions of the UAW-GM agreement. When production resumes in late 2025, Fairfax will produce both the Bolt EV and XT4 on the same assembly line, which gives GM flexibility to respond to changes in customer demand.”
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