General Motors plans to make an upcoming Acura-branded electric vehicle in 2024 at the same Tennessee plant that will assemble the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq, while a more affordable Honda crossover set to be about the same size could be made by GM in Mexico beginning in 2023. 

Both pieces of production news come via a Tuesday report from Automotive News, citing two people familiar with the plans. 

The plan would place production of the Acura EV and Cadillac Lyriq at Spring Hill, Tennessee, in a factory GM originally built for the assembly of Saturn models. 

Cadillac Lyriq concept

Cadillac Lyriq concept

A different report from Automotive News last July suggested GM might retool the Ramos Arizpe Assembly plant in Mexico, which currently makes the Chevrolet Blazer and Equinox, for EV production in 2023. The plant has assembled a generation of affordable GM models like the Chevrolet Cavalier, plus the quirky Pontiac Aztek and Chevy HHR, and more recently the Chevrolet Sonic and versions of the Chevrolet Cruze. 

In November, as part of a stepped up $27 billion EV plan, GM announced that it had sped production of the Lyriq forward nine months versus what had been previously announced—to a U.S. launch in the first quarter of 2022. 

General Motors' BEV3 platform and Ultium batteries

General Motors' BEV3 platform and Ultium batteries

Both Honda/Acura vehicles were announced last April, as part of a partnership between Honda and GM that will allow both companies to more rapidly reach economies of scale for EVs and to share in the co-development of both internal-combustion and electric platforms—including a version of GM’s Super Cruise driver-assistance technology for Honda. 

The collaboration between Honda and GM is by no means the first for the two companies. They have previously allied in hydrogen fuel-cell development, jointly invested in Cruise and its autonomous-vehicle technology, and worked together on battery cell tech.