SPRING HILL, Tenn. (AP) - General Motors Corp. announced Thursday that its plant in Spring Hill, which has built Saturn models for nearly 17 years, will be building a new brand.
The brand's birthplace rolled out its last models for the Saturn brand this week as the plant gets ready to reconfigure its production lines to build new GM vehicles.
GM executives and union officials who met with employees at the plant said the product will be a Chevrolet crossover vehicle, according to people familiar with the meeting who requested anonymity because the automaker hasn't yet officially announced its plans.
Troy Clarke, GM's North American president, and Tim Lee, GM vice president for manufacturing and labor relations, attended the meeting along with Cal Rapson, vice president of the United Auto Workers union.
Designed to compete with low-cost Japanese imports, GM launched the Saturn brand at its plant in the small Tennessee town of Spring Hill in 1990.
Close to 2,400 of the plant's nearly 4,700 workers are being laid off for about 18 months while the plant is remodeled.
GM has promised to bring the workers back once the facility is equipped to produce other GM vehicles.