General Motors’ Factory ZERO Becomes First U.S. Auto Plant to Install 5G Technology

General Motors announced that Factory ZERO, Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center, the company’s all-electric vehicle assembly plant, is the first automotive plant in the U.S. to install dedicated 5G fixed mobile network technology.  Verizon’s 5G Ultra-Wideband service is operating now at Factory ZERO, with its exponential increases in both bandwidth and speed supporting the ongoing transformation of the plant as it prepares to begin producing EVs in 2021.

Factory ZERO is being completely retooled with a $2.2 billion investment, the largest ever for a GM manufacturing facility.  Once fully operational, the plant will create more than 2,200 manufacturing jobs.

GM’s Information Technology team partnered with Verizon Business to take advantage of the benefits of 5G technology.

Key benefits of 5G in a manufacturing plant include reliability, speed and sheer scale.  5G’s massive bandwidth offers the possibility to manage thousands of devices across Factory ZERO’s more than 4 million square feet of space, with ample capacity to support emerging technologies.

Both the upcoming GMC HUMMER EV and the Cruise Origin will be built at Factory ZERO on GM’s Ultium battery platform.  Ultium is flexible enough to build a wide range of EVs — cars, trucks and more — and is the heart of GM’s future EV lineup.