Mr. Elias, who is over one of the larger auto maker companys in Canada, was appointed president of the Canadian operations on Aug. 1. GM manufactures about 800,000 vehicles a year at three assembly plants in Oshawa, Ont., and employs about 20,000 people there and in a transmission plant in Windsor, Ont., and engine and parts plants in St. Catharines, Ont.
One of his first tasks after taking on the job was to announce that the Canadian operations of General Motors Corp. had been chosen to assemble the reborn Chevrolet Camaro muscle car as part of a $2.5-billion investment by the company in Canada.
Part of that investment includes the installation of flexible manufacturing at the car assembly plant in Oshawa where the Camaro will be built beginning in 2008. Mr. Elias said yesterday that production of the Camaro could be as high as 130,000 cars annually.
“We don’t have any other vehicle approved for that flexible manufacturing line aside from the Camaro,” he said.
Union officials said they have been told that a new rear-wheel-drive sedan will also come out of Oshawa beginning in January, 2009.
Mr. Elias acknowledged that it’s fair to say that GM will not spend $740-million to revamp Oshawa simply to build one vehicle.
In fact, the whole point of flexible manufacturing is to build several vehicles off one or more platforms so that a manufacturer can more easily and quickly react to changes in market demand.
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