GM Brazil Opens Biggest Technical Center in Latin America

Latin America is playing a key role in GM's global strategy, so the investments the American manufacturer is making in this region are quite understandable. For example, the company announced on July 15 that it will invest $1 billion in Brazil to develop and release a new car range and expand the capacity of the Gravataí plant from 230,000 to 380,000 units until 2012.

But what's more important is that General Motors today inaugurated the new technical center Sao Caetano do Sul, in the state of Sao Paulo, a facility in which the American manufacturer invested a total of $100 million over the last three years. General Motors' main task was to bring new equipment and hire new professionals that could support the local expansion plans.

Additionally, the former bankrupt US automaker added new buildings and labs and expanded its product development capability in Brazil that will help the 2,000 engineers and designers working at the plant to build the desired range of models.

“GM do Brasil was elected by GM as one of the global product development centers in 2006. Since then, we have started to invest on new buildings and resources to increase our engineering and design expertise to fully comprehend the entire process of designing, building and validating vehicles for Brazil and the global market," said Jaime Ardila, president GM do Brasil and Mercosur.

"The expansion of the tech center in São Caetano do Sul is fundamental to support the company’s initiative to refresh its portfolio and to offer to the Brazilian customers the best cars and trucks in the market," José Carlos Pinheiro Neto, vice-president GM do Brasil, added.