Chevrolet Silverado to End 4500HD, 5500HD and 6500HD this Fall
Chevrolet Silverado medium-duty production is ending this fall, with the 4500HD, 5500HD and 6500HD set to disappear after GM chose not to renew its production agreement with International Trucks. The trucks were built for fleets and heavy-duty work, but only 1,273 sold, and the Springfield, Ohio, line that assembled them is now on a short runway.
September 30 is the cutoff for Silverado medium-duty production at International Trucks’ Springfield facility. International’s CV Series production stops on September 10, creating a narrow gap between the end of the co-developed truck families and the shutdown of the shared program that kept the plant busy.
Springfield loses the Silverado line
2015 marks the start of the GM-International production contract that is now ending, and that long-running arrangement is what made the Silverado 4500HD, 5500HD and 6500HD possible. Chevrolet’s decision not to renew leaves the Springfield, Ohio, plant without the medium-duty Silverado work that had been tied to the lineup from the beginning.
1,273 Silverado medium-duty trucks sold gives the clearest read on why Chevrolet is walking away. The numbers were not large enough to keep the program in place, even though the trucks carried GM’s Duramax 6.6-liter turbodiesel V8, made 350 horsepower and 750 pound-feet of torque, and sent power through an Allison six-speed automatic transmission.
GM’s medium-duty specs
165 inches to 243 inches was the wheelbase range Chevrolet offered, depending on the application, alongside four-wheel drive and regular cab, double cab and crew cab layouts. That spread shows how the lineup was aimed at commercial buyers who needed different body lengths and setups for towing, utility work and hauling.
14,001 pounds to 23,500 pounds was the gross vehicle weight range across the three trucks, with the Silverado 4500HD starting at 14,001 pounds, the 5500HD reaching 19,500 pounds and the 6500HD going to 23,500 pounds. Those figures placed the trucks squarely in the commercial middle ground Chevrolet is now exiting.
Roshel takes over the plant
Earlier this year, International sold the Ohio facility to Canadian defense contractor Roshel, adding another layer of change around the site before the Silverado program winds down. The plant’s immediate problem is not a redesign or a relaunch; it is the loss of the production agreement that supported the medium-duty lineup.
September 10 and September 30 now define the shutdown sequence for the shared truck program. For fleet buyers and upfitters tied to the Silverado 4500HD, 5500HD and 6500HD, the practical takeaway is simple: the models are being discontinued this fall, and the assembly line that built them is ending with it.
