Four-cylinder engine blocks await completion at GM’s Spring Hill plant.

General Motors has officially begun full-scale production of a new four-cylinder engine for the newest Chevy Malibu. The plant in Spring Hill showed off its new $460 million engine line Wednesday.

Spring Hill has always made efficient four-cylinders, starting with the days it was only a Saturn plant. To build the new Ecotec engine, GM spent half a billion dollars on what is effectively a new plant within the existing plant.

Maury County Mayor Jim Bailey sees GM’s investment as a vote of confidence in the Tennessee workforce after years of uncertainty as the company fended off bankruptcy.

“There’s been times when I’ve wanted to literally jump off the ground and clap my hands. There’s been times when tears have literally come into my eyes that we’ve had to make announcements that are really not pleasant to make. But today is a new day.”

At this point, fewer than 200 employees are working on the engine. As many as 450 are expected to be brought on as Malibus start selling.

Spring Hill Mayor Wants a Presidential Visit

Spring Hill Mayor Michael Dinwiddie, who temporarily worked at the GM factory, says President Obama should be thanked for saving the automaker and – by extension – the local plant.

Dinwiddie says the President should come to make Spring Hill an example of how he’s helping create jobs.

“Now I realize that Tennessee voted against him in this last election, but what better message could a leader of a nation say than to say even though you voted against me, I will still help you.”

For workers in Spring Hill, the government bailout of GM remains a sensitive subject. Last year they booed Tennessee Senator Bob Corker who had suggested the company should be allowed to go bankrupt. At the engine line opening, several noted that Corker didn’t attend, though he did send some of his staff.

The new four-cylinder engine represents the start of what is supposed to be the full revival of GM Spring Hill, which is slated to get a small car to build for the 2015 model year, creating more than a thousand jobs.