GM to Close Brownstown Battery Plant as Lease Nears End

A GM spokesperson confirmed the closure to TechCrunch after Automotive News first reported it. Brownstown assembled battery packs for the Cadillac Celestiq and both battery packs and electric drive units for the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray, the plug-in hybrid version of the sports car.

GM said the employees and the work at Brownstown will move to other company facilities, though it did not say which ones. That answers the biggest immediate question only in outline: the work is being reassigned, but the company is still leaving the practical details of that shift unstated.

The timing invites suspicion because battery and EV manufacturing decisions no longer land in a neutral political or commercial atmosphere. TechCrunch notes that GM, like other automakers, has had to navigate a tougher policy environment after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act repealed incentives to produce and sell EVs. Since then, the company has been more restrained in its public EV messaging, even while continuing to make electric models and invest in battery development.

Still, that broader pressure is context, not proof about this plant. On the narrow question of Brownstown, GM’s stated reason is the lease.

The company also pointed to continuing battery work elsewhere, including research into lithium-manganese-rich and sodium-ion chemistries and a $900 million facility aimed at speeding commercialization. Brownstown is closing, but GM is not describing the work itself as ending.