– Mexican facility will help utilize growth potential on American continent more effectively
– Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG: “Ideal basis for further sales opportunities”
– First excavators in operation at San José Chiapa building site
In building a new plant in San José Chiapa in Mexico’s federal state of Puebla, Audi intends to utilize the American continent’s enormous growth potential even more systematically. Speaking at an information visit by Governor Rafael Moreno Valle, head of government of the Mexican federal state of Puebla, Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, said building the new plant in Mexico would serve to achieve important development goals.
“The location of Mexico provides us with an ideal basis from which to intensify our global growth,” Stadler said on the occasion of the visit by the Mexican government delegation from Puebla. A stable economic growth of up to five percent per year makes Mexico the growth engine of Latin America, he continued. As a new mainstay of Audi production, Mexico would also be instrumental in achieving the company’s strategic goals, he added. “Competitive cost structures and diverse free trade agreements with North and South American markets and with Europe,” Stadler said, “will help us further increase our sales.”
In April this year, Audi had taken the important decision to build a new production facility in Mexico. It has been clear since early September that the new plant will be built in San José Chiapa and will become the venue for production of the new generation of the Audi Q5 from early 2016. “The government and the administration of our federal state are currently fulfilling all the necessary requirements for a timely start of construction on the selected site,” said Rafael Moreno Valle, Governor of Puebla, at the headquarters of AUDI AG in Ingolstadt on Tuesday. Preparations for construction have already been completed, he stated. The timetable for the imminent ground and utility works on the 400 hectare lot will be structured so that work on the first building elements can begin as early as spring 2013, he added. “We will do everything to make available the developed land in San José Chiapa successively within the agreed framework,” said Moreno Valle.
Besides providing the site for the erection of the plant, authorities in Puebla state are currently upgrading the infrastructure around the location, which is about 60 kilometers (37.28 miles) south of Puebla City. This includes the government investing in the road and rail network and connecting the location to two superhighways. Also, crucial utility and education facilities need to be created. A new training center will be among the first structures to be built, ensuring that qualification of the future Audi employees can begin early. This will also guarantee an excellent level of resource efficiency for the new plant in Mexico, said Chairman Stadler. “Every one of our cars coming off the line at any of our plants worldwide is of the same high quality,” Stadler stressed.
During its visit to Ingolstadt, the Puebla government delegation also toured Audi’s training and production facilities, familiarizing themselves with the company’s special qualification and quality requirements, experiencing what absolute perfection “made by Audi” is about.
