DETROIT—The Treasury Department will sell its remaining stake in General Motors in the next year or so, winding down a $50 billion bailout that saved the iconic American car giant but also set off a heated debate about government intervention in private business.

This week marks the centennial of Chevrolet. More than 209 million cars and trucks sporting the famous bowtie logo have rolled down GM’s assembly lines during the past century.

A plain-looking warehouse near Detroit is being transformed into a state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery assembly plant. General Motors Co. (GM) is investing $43 million in the facility to mass-produce battery packs for the Chevrolet Volt and other extended-range electric vehicles. When the 160,000-square-foot facility opens next year, it will be the first lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in the U.S. operated by a major automaker.

A timeline of key engineering and manufacturing milestones from GM's first century.

View a slideshow of how GM’s plants and production processes have changed over the decades.

Last year, more than 50 percent of the vehicles that General Motors assembled were sold outside North America. The company's operations in China are among the most profitable in the company's vast production portfolio, which includes assembly plants on six continents.

Engineers at General Motors Corp. (Detroit) have developed innovative technology that is enabling the automaker to reduce changeover costs, improve quality and respond quickly to customers' changing needs. "We