well at least we're still making the EV1!
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Yahoo! News
Business Headlines
Friday June 4 1:22 AM ET
GM To Move Eldorado Line To Lansing
WARREN, Mich. (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) will move
production of the slow-selling Cadillac
Eldorado luxury coupe to its Lansing, Mich., Craft Center early next year from the
Hamtramck assembly plant in Detroit.
''We will be moving the Eldorado up to the Lansing Craft Center,'' Gerald Elson, general
manager of mid-size and luxury cars,
told reporters Thursday. ''It's a low volume vehicle. It allows us to move some
complexity out of the Detroit Hamtramck
plant.''
Eldorado sales have fallen 22.8 percent during the first five months of this year to 5,599
cars from 7,257 in the first five months
of 1998. Some analysts have speculated that the Eldorado could be killed.
The move to Lansing will free up floor space in Hamtramck for a redesigned model year
2000 Cadillac DeVille luxury sedan.
The Buick LeSabre and Cadillac Seville are also manufactured at Hamtramck.
The 2000 DeVille, Cadillac's high volume passenger car, will be unveiled publicly for the
first time at the end of July, shortly
after it goes into production.
''We'll hit full production on the new DeVille in the month of October,'' Elson said.
He declined to disclose production figures for the DeVille, but said ''It'll be a great car; it
should sell well.''
The DeVille will include much-ballyhooed Night Vision infrared technology, which is able
to detect the thermal energy of
objects ahead that are invisible to the human eye and project their images on the
windshield. Warm objects, such as people and
animals, appear white on the windshield, alerting drivers to their presence ahead.
Another technological toy on the DeVille will be an ultrasonic rear parking assist feature,
which uses both audio and visual cues
to help avoid objects when backing up.
The Pontiac Sunfire and Chevrolet Cavalier convertibles, currently produced at the
Lansing Craft Center, will be discontinued
there with the Eldorado's arrival, said GM spokesman Gerry Holmes. Their future will
depend on market demand, he added.
The EV1 electric vehicle will continue to be manufactured at the Craft Center, alongside
the Eldorado, Elson said. GM has
leased only 93 EV1s -- which were much heralded at their launch in the fall of 1996 -- so
far this year, down from 109 for the
first five months last year.
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