GM to repay Canada and U.S. $5.8 billion loan

General Motors Co. says that on its repayment of the loans the governments of the United States and Canada gave the troubled automaker the company will update plants in Detroit and Kansas to build the next-generation Chevrolet Malibu, according to a report from Reuters.

General Motors emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009. The company said it would repay the remaining U.S.$5.8 billion in loans from the U.S. Treasury and Export Development Canada “in full by June at the latest.”

“Our ability to pay back these loans less than a year after emerging from bankruptcy is a sign that our plan for building a new GM is working,” General Motor’s CEO Ed Whitacre said in a piece posted on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site.

The automaker will spend US$257 million to update the Detroit-Hamtramck and the Kansas City factories to build the next-generation Malibu, which is expected to debut in 2011.