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General Motors Mariara, Venezuela Plant
The GM Mariara plant, otherwise known as GM Venezuela Trucks Plant, was located in the city of Mariara, Carabobo, Venezuela. It was closed in 2015 due to the rapid collapse of the Venezuelan automobile industry. During its short seven years of activity, the plant specialized in the production of trucks and buses originated from Isuzu.
Fast Facts
- Year opened: 2008
- Year closed: 2015
- Activity: vehicle assembly
- Facility size: unknown
- Location:
Avenida Diego de Tovar, Zona Industrial Covenal
Mariara, Carabobo State
Venezuela - Phone: not available, facility closed
- Employee information: about 800 direct
- Production capacity: 22,000 units / year
Products
In its last years of activity, the GM Mariara Assembly plant produced the following vehicles:
- Chevrolet N-Series Trucks and Buses (Isuzu N-Series)
- Chevrolet FSR Truck (Isuzu Forward)
- Chevrolet FVR Truck (Isuzu F-Series)
- Chevrolet EXZ Truck (Isuzu Giga)
- Chevrolet C-3500 (Silverado 3500 Chassis Cab)
- Chevrolet Luv D-Max (Isuzu D-Max)
Historic Timeline
General Motors Venezolana C.A. inaugurated the GM Mariara plant on October 9th, 2008 following a $55 million investment to support an ambitious plan for General Motors’ new truck and bus division, complete with its own dealer network.
The GM Mariara plant had two assembly lines, with a capacity to assemble 22,000 units per year across two production shifts. In the long term, the plant’s maximum assembly capacity could increase to 52,000 units, with room to add two new assembly lines and operating on three production shifts.
With the GM Mariara plant, the company was looking to accomplish two objectives:
- To free up capacity of the GM Valencia plant to keep up with the wide demand of passenger vehicles that the Venezuelan market experienced around 2005, and
- To establish the largest truck plant in the country and, as a result, to dominate the country’s commercial vehicles market.
Short Lifespan
In the same year that GM opened the Mariara plant, Venezuela’s automobile market began to experience steady declines. After the historical record of nearly half a million new vehicles sold in 2007, Venezuelan authorities applied a new automotive policy. Contrary to its intended purpose, the new policy resulted in the gradual decline of foreign exchange for raw materials, significantly impacting the industrial sector.
In addition to this, the GM Mariana plant was constantly plagued by labor strikes in which the union demanded an increasing amount of benefits, paralyzing the facility for weeks at a time. Hit by the country’s profound economic crisis, GM Venezolana decided to close the facilities and move the production line of the Chevrolet N-Series Truck to the GM Valencia plant in the beginning of 2015.
