Regular production of the Chevrolet Equinox in the Oshawa, Ontario, assembly plant, has started this week. General Motors Co. is doing this as part of the “Equinox Shuttle” plan, which is meant to boost production of its two top-selling crossovers. Aside from the Equinox, GM will also move to increase production of the GMC Terrain. The extra production capacity at the recently built body shop at the CAMI Automotive Inc. plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, will be used to shift Equinox bodies about 125 miles from the CAMI plant to Oshawa for final assembly.
As a result, the CAMI plant, which operates on three shifts, can boost production of the GMC Terrain. CAMI had been a joint venture between GM and Suzuki Motor Corp.; however, GM bought Suzuki’s half of the company last December. In a recent press release, GM said that sales of the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain rose by 49% in Canada and over 140% in the US, where GM exports over 85% of production.
In a statement, Kevin Williams, managing director of GM of Canada, said that “in a fraction of the time required for typical capacity increases,” its teams have come up with a “fast, flexible, innovative and cost-effective” method to enhance capacity for the two vehicles. For the first 8 months of the year, GM has sold 35,092 units of the GMC Terrain in the US and 6,746 in Canada. Meanwhile, 87,397 units of the Chevrolet Equinox have been sold in the US and 12,676 in Canada.
