General Motors makes $1.2 billion commitment to V8 engines

US car giant General Motors has committed to keeping petrol power alive by allocating $US854 million ($AU1.22 billion) in funding towards the production of its next-generation V8 engines – while its significant investment in electric vehicles continues to grow.

In a media statement General Motors said it will invest $US579 million ($AU828 million) to prepare its existing engine factory in Flint, Michigan – which currently manufactures turbocharged four-cylinder and six-cylinder engines – to assemble the next-generation V8.

The remaining $US275 million ($US393 million) will be divided between three additional factories – Bay City (Michigan), Defiance (Ohio) and Rochester (New York) – which will manufacture different components for the V8 engine before the parts are sent to Flint for assembly.

General Motors is yet to announce a name for the engine, although the car giant has confirmed it will be the sixth-generation in its line of ‘small-block’ V8s which date back to 1955.

The first-generation General Motors ‘small-block’ V8 engine was only available in Australia between 1968 and 1974, powering certain variants of the Holden Monaro and Statesman before the company switched to using its own locally-made V8s until 1999.

When Holden stopped fitting the Australian-made V8 to its cars in 1999, the car-maker adopted General Motors’ new ‘Gen III’ engine – more commonly known as the ‘LS’ series.

The American-made General Motors V8 continued to power high-performance Holden Commodores until the end of the car-maker’s Australian production run in 2017, culminating in the HSV GTSR W1 – powered by a supercharged 6.2-litre V8 with 474kW and 815Nm.

Today, the fifth-generation V8 engine is still available in Australia, powering the Chevrolet Corvette sports car and the Silverado 1500 pick-up which are sold through General Motors Specialty Vehicles (GMSV).

General Motors’ announcement also included a $US64 million ($AU91.5 million) funding commitment for its future electric vehicle projects – adding onto the car-maker’s $US35 billion ($AU50 million) investment towards battery-powered vehicle development between 2020 and 2025.

The Rochester, New York engine parts factory will use $US56 million ($AU80 million) of the funds to produce electric-car battery pack cooling lines, while the remaining $US8 million ($AU11.4 million) has been allocated for the Defiance, Ohio facility to develop battery cells for electric vehicles.

General Motors has previously announced long-term plans to introduce 30 electric models in the US by 2025 across its Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick brands.

In July 2022, General Motors CEO Mary Barra took aim at Tesla, boldly declaring a plan to overtake the pioneer’s electric-car sales in the US by 2025.

“To really get to 30, 40, 50 per cent EVs (electric vehicles) being sold, you have to appeal to people that are in that $US30,000 ($AU43,000) to $US35,000 ($AU50,000) price range,” Ms Barra told the Associated Press.