Jatco has held an opening ceremony for its second Mexican manufacturing plant in Aguascalientes.
It’s part of a US$220m spend employing 900 to add 400,000 units taking total annual capacity in the country to 1.7m units.
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The second plant will produce two CVT transmissions, the CVT8 and the CVT8 Hybrid used in Nissan’s US-built Altima, X-Trail, Rogue and Pathfinder Hybrid.
The first plant started producing CVTs in 2005 and has made over 5m units, almost a quarter of the 21m CVTs the group has manufactured to date.
Jatco cited the high technical skill level of engineers in the Aguascalientes area and the strength of Mexico’s economy and automotive industry as reasons it chose the area for its fourth plant outside Japan.
Located close to Nissan’s second manufacturing plant, also in Aguascalientes, the plant will also act to strengthen the relationship with its main shareholder, Jatco said.
Ground-breaking ceremony to start of production took just 19 months.
