- Title: Audi opens Mexico plant to make Q5 SUV
- Date: 1st October 2016
- Summary: OFFICIALS POSING WITH AUDI
- Embargoed: 16th October 2016 03:17
- Keywords: Audi Mexico Audi Q5 SUV plant Puebla auto manufacturing
- Location: SAN JOSE, CHIAPA, PUEBLA, MEXICO
- City: SAN JOSE, CHIAPA, PUEBLA, MEXICO
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Company News Markets,Economic Events
- Reuters ID: LVA00351RE7GJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: German car maker Audi said on Friday (September 30) it had inaugurated its new plant in Mexico, where it would build the new Audi Q5 SUV.
The plant near to the central city of Puebla will have a production capacity of 150,000 cars a year, the company said.
Reuters reported in June that Audi, Volkswagen's luxury car brand, would make an electric version of the Q5 at the plant.
Audi CEO Rupert Stadler told media it is part of the company's efforts to promote innovative car technology in the Mexican capital.
"It is certain that soon we will build here in Mexico an SUV which will also drive electrically. This is a great challenge. We have made the decision to collaborate with our technology for the construction of the city of the future. In Mexico City, in the suburb of Santa Fe, Audi Urban Solutions will work with the city towards innovative solutions for mobility," he said.
In recent years Mexico has emerged as a major international automobile hub. The country's automotive association, AMIA, has reported a surge in national auto exports and car production to markets in the United States and across Latin America.
Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo hoped Audi's inclusion in the country's automotive industry will attract other premium manufacturers.
"The first Audi plant in the Americas. The first plant for the production of technical vehicles, of premium vehicles has been inaugurated in Mexico which will be an example to other international premium lines," he said.
The company is also seeking to roll out further greener models down the track.
"But I said we will bring electricity and electrifying versions here to Mexico and I am talking about the plug-in hybrid in the first stage so we will organise in the factories to prepare this plug-in hybrid with let's say 50 km (31 miles), 60 km (37 miles) of range and this is one of the next steps when we are talking about the ramp up and this is also hopefully a valid product for the United States and whatever will happen in the future, so until 2020," added Stadler.
Auto manufacturing is at the heart of Mexico's export economy, which sends roughly 80 percent of finished goods to the United States. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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