Fate of GM’s Lordstown Plant, Others Tied to 2019 Labor Talks

General Motors Co. reiterates that the future of its assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, will be settled by talks with the United Auto Workers union next summer.

The carmaker announced last month that it plans to shut down the factory and four others in North America to save $6 billion by 2020. Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk muses that he might be interested in buying the Lordstown complex, which makes the slow-selling Chevrolet Cruze small sedan.

GM describes Lordstown as “unallocated,” meaning that it has no new product program to succeed the Cruze. The plant has been operating at only 30% of capacity, according to the Detroit Free Press, which cites data from LMC Automotive.

LMC estimates that GM’s plants in Hamtramck, Mich., and Oshawa, Ont.—also slated by GM for closure—are running at 37% and 33% of capacity, respectively. Experts say any factory operating below 80% is losing money.

Other GM facilities are at risk too. The Free Press reports that additional U.S. assembly plants with low utilization rates are in Lansing (33%) and Lake Orion (34%), Mich.; Bowling Green (27%), Ky.; and Kansas City (48%), Kan.