General Motors has just reaffirmed its commitment to a new generation of V8 engines for its largest trucks and SUVs like the Chevrolet Silverado. The company has also confirmed a second plant to build the engines, with its Tonawanda Propulsion plant near Buffalo, New York, getting a nearly $1 billion investment to get it ready for the new V8s for 2027.
This follows earlier announcements that indicated GM wasn’t ready to let the V8 die anytime soon, and it’s good news for the job market.
Tonawanda Will Join Flint Making GM’s Latest V8s
GM first confirmed a sixth-generation small-block V8 in 2023 with another production announcement. The company said that it was earmarking $579 million for its Flint Engine Operations plant in Michigan, for assembly as well as block, crank, and cylinder head machining. A plant in Bay City, MI, got $216 million to help with the components it built for the V8s. In total, the company announced plans for $854 million in investments to produce the new engine.
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Today’s announcement is an $888 million investment in the Tonawanda Propulsion plant. That is the largest single investment GM has ever made in an engine plant, which shows the commitment GM is making to its next-gen V8 engines and to keeping V8 engines in vehicles for the next decade.
“Our significant investments in GM’s Tonawanda Propulsion plant show our commitment to strengthening American manufacturing and supporting jobs in the U.S. GM’s Buffalo plant has been in operation for 87 years and is continuing to innovate the engines we build there to make them more fuel efficient and higher performing, which will help us deliver world-class trucks and SUVs to our customers for years to come.”
Mary Barra, Chair and CEO.
GM will install new machinery to build the new engines, as well as new equipment. The nearly 90-year-old plant will also get some facility renovations as it readies for the new engines.
New Engines Will Get More Power, Use Less Fuel
General Motors has said that it expects the new V8 engines to deliver “stronger performance” than the current fifth-generation engines. That extra performance will not come at the cost of more fuel consumption, the company said. Instead, it will use new innovations in combustion as well as thermal management to boost the performance of the engines while reducing emissions and improving fuel economy.
Its competitors have been moving to hybrid systems and smaller-displacement turbocharged engines to power full-sized trucks and SUVs. Ford still offers a 5.0-liter V8, but its 3.5-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 and the same engine with a hybrid system badged as PowerBoost have clearly been its main focus. Meanwhile, at arch-rival Ram, a 3.0-liter twin-turbo Hurricane I6 has taken over in the half-ton truck segment.
GM committing to the V8 could give it a leg up against its six-cylinder competitors. Though GM hasn’t mentioned it, adding even 48V mild hybrid tech to the V8s, like the Ram eTorque system, could help improve both fuel economy and performance on top of any combustion innovations GM might have in store.
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The new engines are expected to launch in 2027, meaning they’ll be around well into the next decade and possibly beyond. The Tonawanda plant will continue to build the current-generation V8, including 5.3 and 6.2-liter versions, until the changeover. Since opening in 1938, the facility has built nearly 77 million engines ranging from four-cylinder engines for cars to 18-cylinder radials for the P-47 Thunderbolt.
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