Made In The USA? (True, False or Plausible? )

[Toasty]

Made In The USA? (True, False or Plausible? )

I'm just wondering, how does everyone else fell about this..

I've always herd that the VOLT was MADE in America, yada yada yada.

Above is the RAW image scan from my chevy volt, that i purchased. (and i love).
but in the "Parts Content Information" section, i was a little disappointed to see that only 46% +/- was made here..
and according to the sticker, "Here" means both USA & Canada.

Now i do understand (or herd) that LG made in battery in korea (or somewhere else), but assembled it here.

So, how does everyone else fell, who was told the car was totally "Made In The USA"?

[scottf200]

Re: Battery and 1.4L engine 2012

Nov 2011 webchat
1:21 - Comment From Patrick
When do you expect to see the battery and engine being made in Michigan instead of overseas?

1:22 - Andrew Farah: Patrick: The battery pack is already made in Michigan at GM's Brownstown, Mich., battery manufacturing plant. Additionally, LG Chem, the company that supplies our battery cells will begin manufacturing cells in Holland, Mich., next year. Also, the 1.4L engine used in the Volt is now manufactured in Flint, Mich.

[MichaelM]

I would also add the tens of thousands of design and testing hours that go into any car. In this case, of course, those jobs were almost exclusively located in the US at GM or GM suppliers. Under the current "label law" those costs don't appear on the content percentage. They are admittedly hard to calculate and allocate to any given model. However, make no mistake: When you buy a US-made GM car, there is much more going to the US economy than is shown on the label; and yes, the converse is true for products made elsewhere.

[Steverino]

So, how does everyone else fell, who was told the car was totally "Made In The USA"?

Who told you the car was "totally" made in the US? I doubt there is much of anything that is "totally" made anywhere. For example, how would you classify the paint that has metallic particles made in Japan by a German company? What if it is formulated by a US company from domestic and non-domestic raw materials?

But as Scott points out, the bulk of the non-USA content (the GM German made Opel engine and the LG batteries) either already is, or will soon be sourced from the US.

Then you can run down the rabbit hole of components made in the US by companies headquartered in another country. Are those made in the US?

But to answer your question, I feel fine. I feel even better when I get to drive the Volt! :-)

[saghost]

A matter of perspective. Final assembly is in Detroit, and the VIN is issued in Detroit. Therefore, the car is unambiguously made in the USA - were before there was a pile of parts, now there is a car.

That pile of parts comes from several places, especially in the earliest cars - notably, the batteries were made in South Korea and the engines in Austria (as on the window sticker you showed.)

As Scott pointed out from the webchat, now that they are building more, GM is moving some of the components here to the US - the engine is mostly the same as the Cruze's 1.4L Turbo, and they are now building both in Michigan (before last year, they didn't use engines that small in the US, but Opel had them for europe's different requirements,) and they built a new battery plant in Michigan, too.

My mid September build has the same parts content shown as the sticker you attached, but I believe that newer cars reflect more US parts, and next year's should have still more.

[Tumblebug]

In our globalizes world there is no getting around parts etc. coming from around the world. GM an everyone else has to do this to keep up. It just the hard truth.

[MTN Ranger]

I don't think the Monroney sticker will be updated with the current domestic sourced percentages until the 2013 model sometime in June/July. They only update the content of these stickers once a year. The good news is that with the Michigan-made batteries and ICE, the domestic source percentages should be around mid 80% level. I think the largest remaining non-domestic content is the Japanese sourced transmission.

[Noel Park]

I'm fine with it. I read the sticker before I put my money down. Assembled in Hamtramck beats the hell out of assembled in Japan, Korea, Mexico, europe, et al. Next case!

[larry4pyro]

V

I would also add the tens of thousands of design and testing hours that go into any car. In this case, of course, those jobs were almost exclusively located in the US at GM or GM suppliers. Under the current "label law" those costs don't appear on the content percentage. They are admittedly hard to calculate and allocate to any given model. However, make no mistake: When you buy a US-made GM car, there is much more going to the US economy than is shown on the label; and yes, the converse is true for products made elsewhere.

This is an important point. I read that GM had at various times over 4,000 engineers working on the Volt. These are not only high paying jobs that support our economy, but in the Volt's case, jobs that are creating new technology that someday could be in all cars.

When considering content I also think we should consider where the profits go. In GM's case, most of it goes to residents of North America.

[Raymondjram]

I'm fine with it. I read the sticker before I put my money down. Assembled in Hamtramck beats the hell out of assembled in Japan, Korea, Mexico, europe, et al. Next case!

My Buick Regal and my Chevy Equinox were both assembled in Canada (different plants), and my Equinox has a Chinese built engine and a Japanese built transmission (by Suzuki). But both are American, since they were designed by Americans from an American manufacturer, and paid with American dollars by an American-born citizen.