June 18 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., shrinking its operations in bankruptcy, said it will halt production of the Pontiac Vibe hatchback by the end of August at the California plant it shares with Toyota Motor Corp.

The decision is part of plans to phase out the Pontiac brand, Troy Clarke, president of GM’s North American operations, said today in a statement. GM hasn’t decided on a replacement for the Vibe, built at the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. facility jointly run with Toyota in Fremont, California.

The end of production will come earlier than GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson indicated in April, when he said Vibe output might continue into next year. The future of the factory, known as Nummi, was called into question by GM’s June 1 bankruptcy. The two companies “remain in active discussions” regarding the plant, GM said today.

“Nummi will continue to produce the Toyota Tacoma and Toyota Corolla,” said Lance Tomasu, a plant spokesman. The factory will “focus on building high-quality vehicles and work on lowering its costs while GM and Toyota discuss Nummi’s future direction.”

The Vibe is a modified version of Toyota’s Matrix. U.S. sales of the Pontiac vehicle fell 35 percent this year through May, while GM’s total dropped 42 percent.

GM’s bankruptcy plan includes idling 12 more plants by the end of 2011 under an accelerated plan to shutter 30 percent of its U.S. assembly sites.

Toyota, after shelving plans to build Prius hatchbacks at a factory in Mississippi, is considering making the hybrid at Nummi, two people familiar with the plan said this week. Tomasu and Toyota’s Jim Wiseman said they are unaware of any such plan.

“Toyota’s obviously considered what they want to do with Prius production, but they haven’t consulted with us in that regard,” Henderson said yesterday in Detroit.

U.S. sales operations for Toyota City, Japan-based Toyota, are in Torrance, California. Toyota is the world’s largest automaker, after passing GM last year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Katie Merx in Southfield, Michigan, at kmerx@bloomberg.net; Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 18, 2009 17:42 EDT