• CONVERSION: The largest car manufacturer in Mexico, GM, announced it will invest more than US $1 billion in its Ramos Arizpe plant in the border state of Coahuila to produce electric vehicles in one of the biggest bets on the Mexican auto sector since the enactment of the USMCA trade deal.
• INVESTMENT: Following a 20 percent fall in Mexico’s auto production in 2020, GM’s announcement comes nine months after Ford’s US $1 billion investment in its Hermosillo plant also in northern Mexico and is part of the company’s effort to move away from internal combustion engines by 2035.
• WORKFORCE: “We are confident that the necessary economic conditions will occur so that eventually the complex (in Ramos Arizpe) can add one more shift to the workforce for some operations”, said Francisco Garza, the president of GM’s operations in Mexico.
• PRODUCTION: In 2020, GM manufactured more than 728,000 units amounting to nearly one quarter of Mexico’s total light vehicle production. Late on Thursday, the United Auto Workers union in the US lambasted GM’s new investment in Mexico calling it “a slap in the face”.
