Manufacturing News
October 24, 2026
October 24, 2026 · Statewide · Story 4 of 4
GM Confirms Brownstown Battery Plant Closure Alongside $20 Billion Buyback
General Motors confirmed its Brownstown battery and drive-unit plant south of Detroit will close when its lease expires in summer 2027, the same day the company authorized another $20 billion in stock buybacks on top of a $6 billion program it finished in January. The plant opened in 2010 with $106 million in federal Recovery Act funding and once employed roughly 300 workers; fewer than a dozen remain, and GM is offering the rest other placements. The closure lands alongside cuts at GM's Factory Zero complex, its Ultium Cells joint venture in Ohio, and Fairfax Assembly in Kansas City.
GM is stepping back from direct battery-plant ownership the same way it did in Lansing, Michigan in 2024, where LG Energy Solution now runs the plant alone. At the same time, Stellantis and Samsung SDI are expanding their joint venture in Kokomo, where the first 23-gigawatt-hour plant is already producing and a second 34-gigawatt-hour plant is targeted for 2027. GM maintains the Brownstown closure is unrelated to its electric vehicle strategy, a claim that sits oddly against the plant's actual output: Cadillac Celestiq battery packs and Corvette E-Ray drive units, with no successor product announced. For Indiana, this is a live example of battery capital reallocating toward Hoosier joint ventures even as GM pulls back from the region.
- Impact
- While GM retreats from direct battery-plant ownership (this follows GM's 2024 exit from a $2.5 billion Lansing, Michigan battery JV, now run solely by LG Energy Solution) Stellantis and Samsung SDI are expanding in the same Midwest footprint, with their Kokomo, Indiana joint venture's first 23-GWh plant already producing and a second 34-GWh plant targeted for 2027. GM also told reporters the Brownstown closure 'is not related to GM's electric vehicle strategy,' a claim that sits oddly against the plant's actual product mandate building Cadillac Celestiq battery packs and Corvette E-Ray drive units with no successor product announced. For Indiana, this is a live signal that battery-plant capital is reallocating toward Hoosier joint ventures even as GM pulls back elsewhere in the region.
- Watch
- Whether GM discloses a reuse or tenant plan for the roughly 780,000 square feet of stranded Brownstown-area industrial space, and progress on Stellantis/Samsung SDI's second Kokomo plant targeted for 2027.
- For the huddle
As GM walks away from battery-plant ownership in Michigan while Stellantis and Samsung SDI scale up their Kokomo JV, are we positioned to pick up any supplier or subcontractor work GM is leaving on the table?
The Kokomo joint venture's second 34-gigawatt-hour plant is targeted for 2027 and will need suppliers GM's Brownstown closure is displacing, so it's worth checking now whether our capabilities match what that plant needs before the subcontracting gets locked in.
Sources
From the brief, October 24, 2026
- Samsung SDI Takes Full Ownership of the New Carlisle Indiana Battery Plant
- Amazon Funds 12 Nuclear Reactors Near Terre Haute
- AEP and X-energy Formalize Breed Station Plan Amid a Competing CANDU Bid
- GM Confirms Brownstown Battery Plant Closure Alongside $20 Billion Buyback
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