General Motors will invest $200 million to construct a brand new test wing at its Global Powertrain Engineering Headquarters in Pontiac, Michigan. The 138,000-sq-ft expansion will allow the automaker to diminish developmental time and decrease costs linked to bringing new propulsion technologies to market by consolidating work from four other locations to the Pontiac campus.

Engineering work currently being done at leased facilities in Wixom, Mich.; Castleton, Ind.; and Torrance, Calif. in addition to GM R&D’s Propulsion Systems Research lab in Warren, Mich. will move into the Pontiac expansion, that’s expected to be completed through the second half 2014. The automaker previously announced that hydrogen fuel cell work being done in Honeoye Falls, N.Y. may also move to Pontiac by the center of this year.

Work at Castleton, which include heavy-duty transmission, power electronics, hybrid, and battery electric drive unit development, will move to Pontiac by mid-2014, as will electric motor and tool electronics engineering development from the Torrance Advanced Technology Center by the tip of 2014. Electric motor engineering development and function engineering will move from the Wixom Advanced Engineering Lab to Pontiac by mid-2015. By the second one half that year, R&D’s Propulsion Systems Research lab in Warren will shift to Pontiac.

In addition to consolidating into the Pontiac facility, GM will move the Performance Build Center from Wixom, Mich. to the Chevrolet Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Ky. by the primary quarter of next year. The Performance Build Center allows customers to construct their very own LSA, LS7, and LS9 engines to be used within the Camaro ZL1 and Corvette Z06 and ZR1, in addition to crate engines for warm rods and muscle cars.

GM says the recent expansion of worldwide Powertrain Engineering Headquarters and consolidation of 4 facilities will add approximately 400 jobs to Pontiac, while cutting 64,000 sq-ft of floor space and eliminating three leased facilities.

Source: GM