GM closes battery assembly plant near Detroit as lease expires

General Motors is closing its battery assembly plant in Brownstown, near Detroit, officially because the lease is expiring, rather than because of its EV strategy. The plant produced batteries for the Cadillac Celestiq and Corvette E-Ray. The closure marks the loss of one of GM's earliest electrification sites.

Key facts at a glance:

• 480,000-square-foot battery assembly plant to close, with production moving to other GM facilities
• Batteries for the Cadillac Celestiq and Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray, with their future production location undisclosed
• $10.9 billion in EV-related charges since Q2 2025, planned Bolt production cut to around 35,000 units

Batteries for the Celestiq and Corvette E-Ray

General Motors is closing the Brownstown Battery Assembly Plant south of Detroit. At the roughly 480,000-square-foot facility, GM assembled battery packs for the Cadillac Celestiq, as well as electric motors and batteries for the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray plug-in hybrid. GM says the closure has nothing to do with its EV strategy: The company leased the site, and that lease is set to expire soon. Employees and production are to move to other GM plants, though the company declined to disclose where Celestiq batteries will be built in the future. The site employed around 300 people at its peak but reportedly has fewer than a dozen remaining following a decline in utilization.

Repurposing and a shift in strategy

GM is also looking for a new use for a roughly 300,000-square-foot building in Detroit originally intended for hydrogen fuel cell production. The $55 million project at the former Michigan State Fairgrounds was planned with Piston Automotive. GM has since taken over the lease, but has yet to decide how the building will be used. The closure fits into GM's broader shift in strategy: Battery-electric vehicle sales have plunged since the $7,500 US purchase incentive ended in September 2025, and several plants have shifted more production back to combustion-engine vehicles. Recent reports suggest that only around 35,000 units of the new Chevrolet Bolt will be built before production ends in Q1 2027, compared with an original target of around 150,000. Toyota reported 29.2% growth in electrified vehicle sales in Q3, while Hyundai increased hybrid sales by 35%.