Volkswagen, the third largest automotive company in Mexico, will invest around $1.0 billion to manufacture electric vehicles in the country; this investment is added to the more than $760 million invested since 2022, reported the local government of the central Mexican state of Puebla.
“Volkswagen is interested in joining the state's electromobility HUB through the signing of an investment manifesto in the order of $942 million, which is added to the investment package announced in 2022 for $763.5 million,” said the governor of Puebla, Sergio Salomón.
The Puebla plant is located 75 miles southeast of Mexico City, Mexico 's largest market. It is also located 174 miles west of the seaport of Veracruz (for international trade with Europe) and 450 miles from the seaport of Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán (the commercial gateway to Asia).
The company nor the governor gave details of the type of electric vehicles they will produce in Mexico. Although it did reveal that Volkswagen has a supply chain of more than 250 supplier companies.
Data from the National Chamber of the Iron and Steel Industry (Canacero), place the automotive industry as the second largest consumer of steel in the country.
Data from the business chamber: Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry (AMIA), in 2023 the Volkswagen group (which also includes Audi) manufactured around 524,350 vehicles, a volume that represented 13.9 percent of the total of 3.78 million manufactured in the country .
With this volume, Volkswagen ranks as the third largest vehicle producer in Mexico, only surpassed by the 16.3 percent of the Japanese Nissan (around 615,750 vehicles) and by the leader General Motors, which manufactured around 722,650 units or 19.1 percent. of the total.
According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA), Mexico is the seventh largest producer of vehicles in the world.