General Motors will build new small car in idled U.S. factory

Click image above for a high-res gallery of the 2010 Chevy Spark

General Motors announced this morning that it will build a future small car at existing U.S. production facilities beginning at some unspecified date. Also remaining unspecified is the location where the car will be built and the actual product. The announcement comes in the wake of the recently ratified modified contract with the UAW. The press release does say that the new production will raise GM’s North American product sourcing from the current 67 percent to over 70 percent by 2013, which runs counter to some recent comments from CEO Fritz Henderson that domestic production share would remain steady. Assembly and stamping facilities will be re-tooled to support production of up to 160,000 small cars annually. It’s not known if the car will be the upcoming Chevy Spark, a derivative or something else entirely. When the Spark launches in the U.S. in 2011, it is thought to perhaps be the first GM car sourced from China for U.S. sale.

Gallery: Geneva 2009: Chevy Spark