General Motors spending $131 million to upgrade Corvette plant

General Motors is spending $131 million on its Bowling Green, Ky., assembly plant to prepare it to build the next-generation Corvette.

The plant will spend the money on manufacturing equipment, specialized tooling and plant updates, said Mark Reuss, GM's president of North America.

The plant will add about 250 jobs, which will boost its workforce by about 50 percent, to about 750 workers.

The Bowling Green plant will continue to build the current-generation car, known as the C6, for the 2012 and 2013 model years. The next-generation Corvette, known as the C7, is expected to debut for the 2014 model year.

GM spent about $39 million on the plant when it changed over to the C6 Corvette in 2005--about one-third the amount it is spending for the changeover to the C7.

Reuss did not disclose any details on the new Corvette.

"Each generation of the Corvette must improve on the last, and I can tell you that the next-generation Corvette will thrill sports-car drivers," he said.

The Bowling Green plant has built the fiberglass-bodied Corvette since 1981, when production was moved from St. Louis, Mo. In 2010, the plant built 15,791 cars.

By Dale Jewett