Korea GM Changwon Plant Surpasses 5 Million Units in Total Vehicle Production

Production of Chevrolet Spark and Damas·Labo

The Changwon plant of GM Korea surpassed a cumulative production of 5 million completed vehicles as of January. The photo shows Kaher Kazem, President of GM Korea (center), Moon Seung, Chairman of the GM Korea Cooperation Council (to Kazem's left), and Kim Seong-gap, Union Chairman (second to Kazem's right), participating in the commemorative ceremony and cutting the celebration rice cake. (Photo by GM Korea)

[Asia Economy Reporter Jihee Kim] The Changwon plant of Korea GM has surpassed a cumulative production volume of 5 million vehicles. This milestone comes more than six years after exceeding 3 million units in 2009 and 4 million units in 2014.

The Changwon plant has served as a specialized production facility for compact cars for over 30 years since 1991. Currently, it produces the compact passenger car Chevrolet Spark and the light commercial vehicles Damas and Labo. Notably, the Spark ranked first in the U.S. compact car segment in the ‘2020 Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS)’ recently released by the U.S. market research firm JD Power. The Spark is the only domestically produced compact car exported to the U.S. market and is entirely manufactured at the Changwon plant.

Korea GM held a ceremony on the 17th at the Changwon plant to celebrate surpassing 5 million cumulative units and to reaffirm its commitment to producing excellent products. About 300 executives and employees attended the event, including Kaher Kazem, President of Korea GM; Lee Dong-woo, Vice President of Production Division; Kim Sun-hong, Head of Changwon Plant; as well as Moon Seung, Chairman of the Korea GM Cooperation Council, representatives of parts suppliers, and Chevrolet dealership representatives.

President Kazem stated, "This milestone at the Changwon plant is an important landmark for the company, employees, and stakeholders. The Changwon plant is making progress based on large-scale investments, including the construction of a new painting plant, and is ready to continuously demonstrate the team’s capabilities along with the next-generation global new products to be produced at Changwon."

Meanwhile, as part of future plans beyond the currently produced products, the Changwon plant has been assigned to produce GM’s next-generation global products. Based on large-scale investments for development and production, facility investments have been underway since last year. The new painting plant to be constructed at the Changwon plant will be a three-story building covering an area of 67,000㎡. It will be capable of painting 60 vehicles per hour, featuring fully automated key processes and environmentally friendly facilities equipped with cutting-edge technology.