General Motors plans to invest $200 million into its Global Powertrain Engineering Headquarters in order to build a new 138,000 sq. ft. test wing. The automaker said this project is part of its commitment to invest $1.5 billion in its North American facilities in 2015 and that it plans to complete the project during Q2 2014.

According to GM, the expansion will help the company consolidate work being done at four locations away from its Pontiac, Mich., campus, thereby speeding up development time for GM’s next-generation powertrain technologies. The company plans to add 400 jobs at its Pontiac campus as part of this effort. In addition, the moves will allow the automaker to eliminate the costs associated with leasing three facilities. GM already consolidated seven southeastern Michigan Powertrain Engineering facilities in 2008.

The facilities where the company is doing engineering development work at leased facilities in Wixom, Mich., Castleton, Ind., and Torrance, Calif., will move to Pontiac. The company plans to move the work done at Wixom on electric motor engineering development and performance engineering by mid-2015. The company plans to move the work being done on electric motor and power electronics engineering to Pontiac by the end of 2014. Lastly, the automaker said it plans to move the heavy-duty transmission, power electronics, hybrid, and battery electric drive unit development work being done in Castleton to Pontiac by mid-2014. GM also plans to move its R&D Propulsion Systems Research Lab to Pontiac during the second half of 2015.

GM noted it already announced its plans to move work being done at its hydrogen fuel cell facility in Honeoye Falls, N.Y. to Pontiac. The automaker is also moving its Performance Build Center, which is currently located at GM’s Wixom facility, to its Chevrolet Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Ky.

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