Some General Motors vehicles are made in America, but what does a comparison reveal?

The latest reports from the Cars.com annual American-Made Index for 2020 and the American University Kogod School of Business Made in America Auto Index, show that some GM products score very highly on the American-made index. These include the Colorado and Canyon, both of which are protected by a 25% import duty, and some relatively low-volume models like Cadillac’s crossovers, the Corvette and the Camaro.

gm china image courtesy of GM

However, the newest, high-volume models introduced by GM in the past decade are almost all imported. For example, the Buick Envision crossover GM imports from China outsells all of Cadillac’s crossover models. The imported from Korea Chevy Trailblazer outsells the Corvette, and the imported from Mexico Chevy Blazer outsells the Colorado, Canyon, and Camaro. Buick’s imported Encore line outsells every vehicle on the American-made lists that GM highlighted in a press release today.

“We’re proud of GM’s massive American manufacturing footprint, consisting of 11 vehicle assembly plants, 26 stamping, propulsion, component and battery plants, and 19 parts distribution centers,” said Phil Kienle, GM vice president of North America Manufacturing and Labor Relations. “Our manufacturing strength in the U.S. is a team effort starting with our employees and extending to our supplier partners and local communities across the country.”

GM is also not the most American-made when it comes to the products it sells most – pickup trucks. Notably absent from the list of most American-made vehicles that GM highlighted today was the Silverado and Sierra pickup truck lines. on the American University Kogod School of Business Made in America Auto Index the Honda Ridgeline pickup earns a 70% American-made score. By contrast, the Colorado and Canyon earn a score of 64%. The Toyota Tundra scores 60% and the Silverado scores 46%.

Without question, GM is a massive manufacturing presence in America. However, a glance at its most recently-added new products shows that the trend is to manufacture new models outside of America.