Factory ZERO

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

General Motors built this mile-square assembly plant in the early 1980s on the site of Poletown, a Detroit-Hamtramck neighborhood of some 4,200 residents cleared through a controversial use of eminent domain. The Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly Center opened in 1985 and built Cadillacs, Buicks and Oldsmobiles for more than three decades, later adding the Chevrolet Volt hybrid from 2011 to 2019. Mary Barra, later GM's chief executive, managed the plant in the late 1990s early in her career. GM closed the line in 2019 and spent 2.2 billion dollars retooling it as the company's first all-electric assembly plant, reopening it in 2021 as Factory ZERO. The GMC Hummer EV rolled off the new line that December, followed by the Cadillac Escalade IQ, Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV. The plant remains a working GM facility on the Detroit-Hamtramck border, not open for public tours.

1. Built 1980–1985 on the cleared Poletown neighborhood
2. Mary Barra managed the plant in the late 1990s
3. Built the Chevrolet Volt, 2011–2019
4. Retooled 2019–2021 as GM's first all-electric plant
5. First Hummer EV rolled off the line, December 2021