After two months of inactivity at the factory due to the current global semiconductor shortage, GM Authority learned that General Motors will resume production at the San Luis Potosí plant in Mexico next week. The automaker following its projection announced on March 3rd, when it confirmed that downtime at the Mexican plant would extend until the end of the month at the earliest.
The San Luis Potosí plant has been closed since February 8th due to a lack of components, being one of several GM factories in North America affected by the severe shortage of semiconductor microchips that threatens the stability of the automotive industry. That same day, the company stopped vehicle production at the Fairfax, Kansas and Ingersoll, Ontario plants for the same reason.
A senior executive from GM Mexico revealed to Expansión magazine that the San Luis Potosí plant will restart production next Monday, April 5th, becoming the first of the North American factories affected by the semiconductor crisis to resume operations. From that date, the company will once again manufacture the Chevrolet Onix, Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain at the Mexican plant in two production shifts.
In addition to the negative impact of COVID-19 on the Latin country’s economy, the microchip shortage that forced production to stop in San Luis Potosí has significantly affected GM’s business in Mexico. In fact, in the first two months of 2021, the Chevrolet brand’s share fell almost three percentage points in the Mexican market, going from 15.8 to 13.3 percent.
“We have had to operate with very tight inventories of some of our models on our sales floors,” said Marketing Director of GM Mexico, Jorge Plata, in a statement. “We all wanted 2020 to end, which was a difficult year, but the truth is that we have also had a very challenging 2021,” he added.
With the restart of production at the San Luis Potosí plant, GM Mexico hopes to stabilize its position in the local market, focusing its efforts on meeting the high demand for Chevrolet Onix in the Latin American country. The popular subcompact vehicle, which in Mexico is manufactured exclusively in sedan configuration, was the company’s best-selling model for three consecutive months from November to January before its assembly plant shut down.
Subscribe to GM Authority as we bring you the latest San Luis Potosi plant news, GM Mexico news, Chevrolet Onix news, Chevrolet news and ongoing GM news coverage.
No Comments yet