GM to Invest €210 Million in Spanish Plant

MADRID – General Motors will inject €210 million ($287 million) into its Zaragoza plant this year as it retools for a new Opel Meriva and adds two more models.

The automaker is targeting output at the facility of 295,000 vehicles in 2014, up from 285,000 in 2013.

The investment is part of a €1 billion ($1.4 billion) infusion of capital at the plant over a 4-year span that began last year. Overall, GM has poured more than €4.3 billion ($5.9 billion) into the 30-year-old facility, with more than half coming since 2000.

GM Spain General Manager Antonio Cobo announces the investment and production targets at a Job One ceremony to mark the launch of the new Meriva, which made its first public appearance at the recent Brussels auto show.

This marks the third generation for the vehicle, initially launched in 2003 and updated in 2010.

The Meriva will be joined at the Zaragoza plant by the Opel Mokka in August. Currently, the small CUV is built at GM’s Bupyeong, South Korea, facility, but Zaragoza will become the sole source for the vehicle.

In November, the new Opel Corsa will be added to the mix at the Spanish plant, as well.

Cobo forecasts about 60,000 new Merivas will be assembled at Zaragoza during 2014.

“The late arrival of the other two models does not allow us great production figures in 2014,” he says.

But even the forecast 295,000 units in 2014 represents only about two-thirds the plant’s capacity of 450,000 units.

PSA and GM confirmed in 2013 a multipurpose version of the Citroen C3, the C3 Picasso, also will be assembled at the Zaragoza plant at the end of 2016.

The Mokka sourcing shift will impact local suppliers, as output of 66 different parts for the CUV will be relocated from South Korea to Europe.

“Eighty-five percent of these components have been assigned to Spain,” Cobo says.