GM to Cut U.S. Production at Several Plants

General Motors Co. says it will eliminate 10 weeks of production this summer by idling multiple unspecified factories in North America to retool for next-generation pickup trucks and other models.

The downtime will be in addition to the normal two-week summer shutdowns scheduled for the first half of July.

Alan Batey, who heads North American operations, tells reporters at the New York auto show the plan will most strongly affect facilities that make the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra fullsize pickups. The replacements for those models are expected to debut in summer 2018. Batey says some other undisclosed models are being updated too.

He says GM deliberately built up dealer inventories to ride out the downtime. Batey predicts supplies will be back to near normal by the end of this year. GM entered April with an average 91-day supply of vehicles, about one-third greater than normal, according to Automotive News.