Foreign Chevrolets
Posted Apr 16th 2008 3:52PM by Brian White
Filed under: Competitive strategy, General Motors (GM)
General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) will be building a new vehicle engine and parts plant in Brazil at a cost of $200 million, the automaker said this week. The new plant will bring about 500 new employees to the automaker at a time when it's winding down the closure of quite a few vehicle assembly plants all over the U.S.
Six quarters from now, the new Brazilian plant shout be producing engines in the new facility, which is expected to make about 50,000 engines per year. In a unique twist, GM also indicated that engines from this new plant will be tested without using gasoline, eliminating contaminants inside the plant (as in emissions particulates).
Most likely, engines produced in this plant (which GM has been mum about) will be used in vehicles to feed the fast-growing Brazilian market and perhaps other South American markets as well. GM has seen a rapid increase in its Latin America sales as of late, with a 19.4% increase to 1,235,913 vehicles last year to countries in the region.







