Jean-Paul Michel, executive vice president of the interior division, explained that the recently opened plant, which has a production area of 20,000 square meters, already has plans to almost double this capacity by the end of this year.
“We’re not just starting now, but we’re already growing as well,” Michel said at the complex’s inauguration.
Company executives confirmed that Volvo and Stellantis will be the first two customers to supply from this plant, and, in the medium term, they will serve two other American customers. Sources close to the sector confirmed that Tesla is one of these two new customers.
Most of the components that will be produced in this plant will be for electric vehicles produced both in Mexico and in other plants in the United States and Canada.
“We are seeing many opportunities in this transition to electromobility and we are moving to be able to develop new structures,” said Nik Endrud, Executive Vice President for the Americas at Forvia.
The manager cited some examples, such as cooling systems for batteries, called CCH (cooler control hub), or front grills with lighting details that replace the grills with combustion cars. Forvia has also invested in the development of hydrogen fuel cells for commercial and passenger vehicles that are already on the market in some Asian and European markets.
Endrud also said that the production of components that have to do with the internal combustion system of vehicles now generate 10% of the company’s total revenue, from 30% previously.
The manager defined Mexico as an “attractive platform for the nearshoring“due to the proximity to the United States, the productivity and quality of the workforce, and a competitive cost structure, which even means that in 90% of the business case What Forvia does to define the location to produce new components, Mexico is more convenient than China. “Except for some very specific inputs, like steel, Mexico is more competitive,” he said.
Samuel García, governor of Nuevo León, explained during his speech at the inauguration of the complex, that the entity has attracted 50% of the development projects nearshoring that have landed in the country, and that one of every five dollars of foreign direct investment (FDI) has been invested in Nuevo León. The last big announcement was the investment of 5,000 million dollars to build a Tesla gigafactory in the municipality of Santa Catarina.
Manuel Montoya, director of the Nuevo León Automotive Cluster (Claut), explained in an interview that there are 25 auto parts suppliers installed in the country that already supply the Tesla gigafactory in Austin, Texas. “But we hope that now, with the new (Mexican) plant, there will be more announcements.”