GM’s Lordstown Plant Builds Its Last Chevy Cruze

General Motors Co.’s factory in Lordstown, Ohio, assembled its last Chevrolet Cruze compact car yesterday, leaving the facility with no new product to build.

Lordstown is the first of three North American assembly plants GM plans to shutter under cutbacks announced last November. The company says its aim is to lower costs and better align capacity with market demand.

The Lordstown complex opened in 1966 as a producer of fullsize Chevrolet sedans and coupes. In the early 1970s it began making the compact Chevy Vega at an unusually fast line speed of 70 cars per hour. Worker unrest over the pace of production and perceived shortcomings in the Vega design triggered a 22-day strike in 1972.

The facility has assembled more than 16 million vehicles, including about 2 million Cruze cars. But demand for sedans began to fade two years ago as market demand accelerated its move from cars to crossover vehicles. GM eliminated two of three production shifts, shedding some 3,000 jobs.

This week’s shutdown impacts another 1,500 employees. GM says about 400 workers have accepted jobs at other company facilities in other states.

GM says it will make a final decision about whether to close Lordstown permanently later this year, pending the outcome of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union.