General Motors will invest $245 million into its Orion Assembly plant to launch an all-new vehicle program unlike any in the plant’s 32-year history. The plant is already slated to build the all-electric Chevrolet Bolt EV in 2017, but this investment is for a different, and as yet undisclosed model. The plant currently assembles the Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano small cars which have recently seen slow sales due to a drop in gasoline prices.

“Orion Assembly is a breeding ground for manufacturing innovation,” said Cathy Clegg, GM North America vice president of Manufacturing and Labor Relations. “It serves as a model for how to engage the entire workforce at all levels to achieve success. The plant is up to the challenge of building this brand-new product, something it’s never seen before.”

Investment in Orion totals $962 million since the UAW and GM worked together to reopen the previously idled plant in 2010.

“Orion is an example of what we can achieve when we work together,” said UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, who leads the union’s GM Department. “Only through innovative problem solving were we going to see this plant succeed, and this new investment is proof of that. UAW-GM continue to show the world that when you involve both workers and management in the process, workers win, management wins and our communities win.”