compact

The automaker plans to roll out its first all-electric passenger car in 20 U.S. cities late next year.

General Motors unveiled plans Thursday to build a new compact Buick sedan at an idled plant in Michigan that once built Pontiacs. The automaker will invest $145 million to retool the Orion Assembly plant, which will build the new Buick Verano sedan as well as a yet-unnamed small Chevrolet car, GM said during a press briefing at the plant, about 40 miles north of Detroit.

GM is expected to announce the production of a new compact car for Buick -- the Verano. The upscale sedan will be assembled in a former Pontiac plant in Orion Township, Mich., helping to restore 1,200 jobs at the facility.

Ford Motor Co. (F) is on a roll. The lone U.S. car company not to have taken a government bailout, Ford said Wednesday it foresees a return to profitability within two years, as it unveiled an inexpensive compact car to be made in India. (Autoblog has a gallery of the new car here.) The Figo,...