GM Cuts Ribbon on Uzbekistan Engine Plant

VIENNA – General Motors Powertrain-Uzbekistan, the joint venture owned 52% by General Motors and 48% by the Uzbek state automotive company UzAvtosanoat, inaugurates its new engine plant in the country’s capital of Tashkent.

The facility, which covers 100 acres (40 ha), not only is GM’s first engine plant in Central Asia, it also is the first completely new car engine plant constructed by any auto maker on the territory of the former Soviet Union, including Russia, since the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991.

It will produce more than 225,000 new Ecotec 1.2L and 1.5L gasoline engines annually for use in GM’s small cars. Other engines may follow.

“Producing engines locally strengthens our commitment to the development of a strong local automotive industry, which can help guide the economic growth of the entire Central Asian region,” John Buttermore, GM International Operations vice president-manufacturing and labor, says in a prepared statement. “It is also a sign of the emerging talent in the Uzbek industry and our faith in its capability.”

The Uzbek plant joins facilities in China and Korea as a producer of the 1.2L and 1.5L powerplants. Both engines use a cast-iron block and aluminum head, with dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. They both are Euro 5 emissions-compliant.

The first engines produced at the plant starting this month will be installed in the Chevrolet Spark minicar manufactured at General Motors Uzbekistan.

The car factory is held 25% by GM and 75% by UzAvtosanoat and located in Asaka, about 250 miles (400 km) from the new engine plant.

GM Uzbekistan manufactures cars for sale in Uzbekistan, Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States countries.

A new small sedan, which is expected to be built at the Asaka car plant in the near future, also will be powered by locally made engines.

The new facility, which will employ up to 1,200 people, is one of only a few GM Powertrain plants in the world with co-located assembly and foundry operations.

It will be Central Asia’s only manufacturing plant capable of producing finished machined components, such as cylinder heads, cylinder blocks and crankshafts.

“GM has employed advanced environmental-protection processes throughout the facility, including the most modern wastewater-treatment technology in Uzbekistan with the purest discharge of any facility of its kind within GM,” the company says.

“A final reverse osmosis treatment system ensures water leaving the plant will be as clean as drinking water.”