San Luis Potosí Assembly
San Luis Potosí Assembly is a General Motors assembly plant located in San Luis Potosí, Mexico — 400 km northwest of Mexico City. The facility was dedicated on July 30, 2008,[1][2] with a June 2009 construction completion.[3] President Vicente Fox, other dignitaries, and local executives from General Motors attended the ground-breaking ceremony in July 2006.[3]
Plant overview
Built on a 850-acre (3.4 km2) site, the plant recycles 90% of the water it uses. The plant cost $650 million (US), employs up to 1800 and has an annual capacity of 160,000 cars [4] is a part of a "quiet" [4] trend of US companies moving production facilities to Mexico with little publicity. Other examples include the Dodge Journey now manufactured at the newly renovated Toluca Car Assembly, where Chrysler invested $1 billion.[4] Nissan manufactures its Versa in a Mexican plant — after a $1.3 million investment from the automaker and its suppliers.[4] Volkswagen produces Jettas for the global market at its plant in Puebla, and will start production of the Jetta station wagon.[4]
The GM factory will be augmented by the a new fastener production facility called Parque Industrial Millennium, a 3,400 square metres (37,000 sq ft) building, where EJOT of Bad Berleburg, Germany and ATF Inc. of Lincolnwood, IL, will manufacture engineered fasteners and cold-headed products.[5]
Production
San Luis Potosí Assembly manufactures rebadged variants of the Daewoo Kalos for the North American market. These include the Chevrolet Aveo for the United States and Canada, and the Suzuki Swift+ for Canada. The plant also manufactures Aveos marketed in Mexico and South America.[2][3]
The plant manufactured the (now discontinued) Pontiac G3 for the United States[3][6] and the Pontiac Wave for Canada.
References
- ^ "Factories Go South. So Does Pay". Business Week. 9 April 2007.
- ^ a b "GM dedicates Mexico complex that will build Aveo". Automotive News, Stephen Downer, July 30.2008.
- ^ a b c d "GM to produce Aveo at new Mexican plant, Stephen Downer, Automotive News".
- ^ a b c d e "U.S. automakers expand in Mexico, but do it very quietly". International Herald Tribune, Elisabeth Malkin and Micheline Maynard, July 21, 2006.
- ^ "EJOT GmbH & Co. KG and ATF Inc. Announce New Manufacturing and Distribution Plant in Mexico". Automotive Industries, Debbie Fliehman.
- ^ "The Last Pontiac Built in the US". Autoevolution. Retrieved 2009-11-27.