CAMI Assembly (an initialism of its original name, Canadian Automotive Manufacturing Inc.) is an automotive assembly plant in

Ingersoll, Ontario Ingersoll is a town in Oxford County on the Thames River in southwestern Ontario, Canada. The nearest cities are Woodstock to the east and London to the west. Ingersoll is situated north of and along Highway 401. Oxford County Road 119 (formerly ...

, Canada, owned and operated by

General Motors Canada General Motors of Canada Company (), commonly known as GM Canada, is the Canadian subsidiary of US-based company General Motors. It is headquartered in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. After the 2008 financial crisis, GM Canada received a combined loan ...

. The plant currently assembles the

Chevrolet BrightDrop The Chevrolet BrightDrop, formerly the BrightDrop Zevo, is a battery electric delivery van produced by General Motors (GM). It was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 12, 2021, under the BrightDrop brand, with production begin ...

battery-electric cargo van for the North American market. CAMI occupies and has of

floor A floor is the bottom surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from wikt:hovel, simple dirt in a cave to many layered surfaces made with modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal or any other material that can support the ex ...

space of which was added in 2016, as part of a $560 million investment. CAMI was established in 1989 as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with

Suzuki is a Japanese multinational mobility manufacturer headquartered in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka. It manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a va ...

, and has been wholly owned by GM since 2009. It uses the CAMI Production System (CPS), a set of operating philosophies that guide team members in manufacturing vehicles. The basis of the system is working in teams performing

standardized Standardization (American English) or standardisation (British English) is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organiza ...

work. This is based on the Japanese production system, which is built on a team concept.

History

CAMI was an independently incorporated

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

manufacturing in

, Canada and formed the third step of

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

' three-pronged initiative of the mid-1980s to capture and practice the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese mystique of automotive management. The other two were

United Australian Automobile Industries United Australian Automobile Industries (UAAI) was an automobile model sharing firm that operated in Australia between 1987 and 1996 as the result of an agreement between Holden (the Australian subsidiary of General Motors) and Toyota Australia ...

between

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

and

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. Founded in Adelaide, it was an automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter that sold cars under its own marque in Australia. It was ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, and

NUMMI New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) was an American automobile manufacturing company in Fremont, California, jointly owned by General Motors and Toyota, that opened in 1984 and closed in April 2010. The plant is located in the East Ind ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

with

and GM, the latter a wholly owned alternative to apply its learnings into practice. CAMI was the least successful of the trio for decades, but is now the sole survivor. Production began in late 1989 after several delays. To circumvent the American 25 percent "

Chicken tax The Chicken Tax is a 25 percent tariff on light trucks (and originally on potato starch, dextrin, and brandy) imposed in 1964 by the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson in response to tariffs placed by France and West Germany on imp ...

", the entire Canadian production of Geo Trackers was initially shipped to the United States. The Canadian market, not afflicted by a similar tariff, was supplied directly from Japan. CAMI sticker

In November 2009, GM announced to invest US$85 million investment at the plant, raising production by 40,000 vehicles to 240,000 by adding a third shift, resulting in the recall of about 150 laid-off autoworkers in preparation of the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain. Until December 2009, ownership of CAMI was split 50-50% between

and General Motors of Canada Ltd. The former withdrew from the venture after it stopped production of its XL7 models at CAMI in June 2009 due to poor sales. In December 2010, contrary to conditions set out by Canadian federal and Ontario provincial governments, GM laid off approximately 90 salaried staff as a result of its takeover of the CAMI Assembly plant. From 2013 the plant has produced vehicles based on GM's ''

Theta Theta (, ) uppercase Θ or ; lowercase θ or ; ''thē̂ta'' ; Modern: ''thī́ta'' ) is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth 𐤈. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 9. Gree ...

'' platform for

crossover SUV A crossover, crossover SUV, or crossover utility vehicle (CUV) is a type of automobile with an increased ride height that is built on unibody chassis construction shared with passenger cars, as opposed to traditional sport utility vehicles ( ...

s; production of the second generation Chevrolet Equinox for fleet sales continued even as production of the third generation model started on 8 January 2017. In 2013 GM announced a US$200 million (C$250 million) investment for a new body shop and flexible manufacturing equipment and tooling to support future production. In early 2015, GM announced to invest US$450 million (C$560 million) in the plant in preparation for production of the next generation Chevrolet Equinox. The amount included C$190 million at the plant and C$370 million in vendor tooling with suppliers. In January 2017, GM announced it would cut 625 workers as a result of shifting production of the second generation GMC Terrain to Mexico and phasing out the second generation Chevrolet Equinox earlier than planned. CAMI Automotive has 2,800 hourly and 300 salaried employees in early 2017 before the layoff. CAMI also supplied unfinished bodies of Chevrolet Equinox to GM's Oshawa Car Assembly for painting and final assembly. The arrangement ended after the production of the second generation Chevrolet Equinox ceased in 2017. In response to the Terrain's shifting and due to the production of the Equinox in two plants in Mexico, workers went on a strike, demanding CAMI become the main assembly point of the Equinox. The strike ended on October 16, 2017. In 2021, GM announced CAMI Assembly would transition to the BrightDrop platform (starting in May 2022) to become General Motors Canada's first commercial EV manufacturing plant. Announced initial buyers include FedEx and Walmart. The plant will begin to produce the BrightDrop Zevo 600 in December 2022, and the Zevo 400 in 2023. The first BrightDrop vehicles were produced in early December 2022, with a grand opening event attended by various dignitaries. GM also announced package delivery service EDEXas its first international EV customer.

Vehicles produced

Current

400 (2023–present) *

600 (2022–present)

Former

* Chevrolet Equinox (2004–2022) * Chevrolet/Geo Metro (1989–2001) * Chevrolet/Geo/GMC Tracker (1989–2004) * GMC Terrain (2009–2017) * Pontiac Firefly (1989–2001) * Pontiac/Asüna Sunrunner (1989—1998) * Pontiac Torrent (2006–2009) * Suzuki Grand Vitara (1998–2005) *

Suzuki Sidekick The Suzuki Vitara is a series of SUVs produced by Suzuki in five generations since 1988. The second and third generation were known as the Suzuki Grand Vitara, while the fourth generation eschewed the "Grand" prefix. In Japan and a number of ...

(1989–1998) *

Suzuki Swift The is a supermini car (B-segment) produced by Suzuki. The vehicle is classified as a B-segment marque in the European single market, a segment referred to as a supermini in the British Isles. Prior to this, the "Swift" nameplate had been applie ...

(1989–2001) * Suzuki XL-7 (2006–2009)

Historical timeline

*1986 - CAMI Automotive established *1989 - Production of J1 (and Geo Tracker), M2 ( Geo Metro) begins - 6,760 vehicles were built in calendar year 1989. *1990 -

production added. *1993 - Total CAMI production reaches 500,000. *1994 - Production of M3 (Geo Metro and Pontiac Firefly) begins. *1996 - Total CAMI production reaches 1.5

million 1,000,000 (one million), or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian ''millione'' (''milione'' in modern Italian), from ''mille'', "thousand", plus the ...

vehicles. *1998 - Production of J2 (

Suzuki Vitara The Suzuki Vitara is a series of Sport utility vehicle, SUVs produced by Suzuki in five generations since 1988. The second and third generation were known as the Suzuki Grand Vitara, while the fourth generation eschewed the "Grand" prefix. In ...

and Geo Tracker) begins and CAMI receives ISO 9002 registration for its Quality Management System. *2000 - CAMI receives

ISO 14001 The ISO 14000 family is a set of international standards for Natural environment, environment management systems. It was developed in March 1996 by International Organization for Standardization. The goal of these standards is to help organizations ...

registration for its Environmental Management System. *2003 - Total CAMI production reaches 11.5 million vehicles. *2004 - Production of Chevrolet Equinox begins. *2005 - Production of Pontiac Torrent begins. *2006 - Production of Suzuki XL7 begins. *2009 - Production of Suzuki XL7 put on indefinite hold. *2009 - Production of GMC Terrain begins. *2009 - Suzuki withdraws from venture; gives General Motors full control. *2016 - Plant expansion *2017 - Production start of third generation Equinox; production of sister second generation Terrain moved to Mexico; in response of the Terrain's moving to Mexico, workers go on a strike demanding CAMI to become the main assembly point of the Equinox in order to prevent more shiftings to Mexico. *2022 - Production of the Chevrolet Equinox ended April 29, 2022 *2022 - Plant retools for BrightDrop production *2022 - Production of the BrightDrop Zevo 600 begins December 2022. *2023 - Production of the BrightDrop Zevo 400 begins.

Awards and highlights

*In the 2005 Harbour Report, CAMI was ranked No. 3 in

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construct ...

assembly in the Small SUV category of the 45 auto assembly plants in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. *Recognized as the most efficient plant in North America four years in a row (2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015) *J.D. Power Silver Plant Award for the Americas – June 2014 *Landfill Free status achieved in January 2014 *Clean50 - 'Leaders in Sustainability' Top 15 Project winner - September 2015 *Best GMNA Plant in Wiring Warranty Performance – February 2014

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cami Automotive Car manufacturers of Canada General Motors factories Ingersoll, Ontario Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies 1986 establishments in Ontario Motor vehicle assembly plants in Canada