The Impala, Chevrolet’s full-size family saloon, will officially end production this week with the last one scheduled to be completed at the Detroit Hamtramck Assembly Plant on February 28.
Originally launched in 1957, it was built continuously until 1985 and following a nine-year hiatus, it returned in 1994 until 1996. After another break, it was back in 2000 and remained in production for the next two decades.
It joins the CT6, also built at the plant, on the scrapheap with the last Cadillac rolling off the line on January 24. There is no successor planned for the Impala which also happens to be the last internal combustion-engined vehicle that is made at the facility.
The original plan was for General Motors to close the plant down which would have cost 1,800 employees their jobs. It opened in 1985 and has produced over 4 million vehicles. GM reversed that decision and will retool the facility in preparation for building EVs such as the upcoming GMC Hummer.
Volume of the new EVs will be less than 25,000 for now due to a lack of demand but GM aims to build around 50,000 units there annually.
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