Many UAW jobs were lost when the pickup truck and full-size SUV market collapsed.
New confirmation has emerged indicating that General Motors expects to bring out a replacement for its current full-size pickup trucks in the 2012-2013 period.
It was the large investment in the current Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra models, along with the gas guzzling body-on-frame SUVs derived from them that, arguably, finally forced GM into insolvency in the fall of 2008 after gas prices soared and the economy collapsed because of the reckless, uncontrolled practices of Wall Street financiers.
Sources inside the United Auto Workers union are telling TheDetroitBureau.com that GM has already begun laying the ground for awarding key contracts for components on the next generation pickup trucks.
The contracts are timed for a 2012-2013 launch, according to the union. The union, of course, suffered severe job cutbacks when the truck market collapsed, and was forced to grant severe wage and benefit concessions for future workers during the GM bankruptcy process last year.
The timing also suggests that GM is zeroing in on a powertrain strategy, which will have to come close to meeting the new average new requirements that will take effect in 2016.
GM had delayed the engineering work on the new pickup during its financial crisis, but GM engineers had gotten far enough long to rule out a unit-body vehicle as a replacement for the current Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, which remain among the company’s most profitable vehicles even during the Great Recession.
Sales of pickup trucks are expected to grow again either later this year or next year as new housing starts finally begin to revive, according to some prognosticators. The timetable for the recovery also suggests the launch of the new pick could be propitious – if, a great big if at this time — the economic growth begins to accelerate after a long, long downturn and unemployment rates not seen since the Great Depression.