GM to assemble three electrified models in Brazil within a year
Thomas Owsianski
Gabriel Reis/Valor
Within less than a year, General Motors will have three electrified models coming off assembly lines in Brazil. The third, the plug-in hybrid Captiva, is set to arrive in November, GM South America President Thomas Owsianski said. Plans for a fourth model—this time a compact all-electric vehicle—are already well advanced.
Owsianski outlined the launch schedule during a speech at an event honoring suppliers on Wednesday night (Sept. 9). Yet virtually none of the suppliers receiving awards will provide parts for the electrified vehicles, as the models arrive in Brazil semi-knocked-down from China.
Outsourced assembly
Final assembly of the vehicles, which arrive from China with their bodies already built and painted, will not take place at any of GM’s three Brazilian vehicle plants, facilities closely tied to the automaker’s 101-year history in the country. Instead, GM has outsourced production of its electrified lineup.
All of the company’s hybrid and electric models are being assembled by Brazilian trading company Comexport at PACE, the Ceará Automotive Plant, in Horizonte, in the Fortaleza metropolitan area.
Owsianski said GM chose Comexport, a multi-brand company specializing in this type of vehicle, because volumes remain too low to justify the complex manufacturing operations used at GM’s existing plants in Brazil.
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PACE occupies the former site of the Troller vehicle plant, where production continued until 2021, when Ford, then Troller’s owner, decided to shut all of its factories in Brazil.
Ceará has attracted automakers since Ford acquired Troller in part because the state is covered by the Northeast Automotive Regime, which has offered tax incentives since the mid-1990s as part of efforts to decentralize Brazil’s auto industry.
Another benefit has now been added: an Import Tax exemption for vehicles brought into the country in semi-knocked-down form. In the first half of the year, the federal government extended the exemption through year-end.
Supplier concerns
Asked whether suppliers attending Wednesday’s event were concerned about the arrival of models that will not use locally produced parts, Owsianski said: “They are not concerned because we are growing.”
Brazil sold 1.88 million passenger cars and light commercial vehicles from January through August, up 19.78% from the same period a year earlier. GM ranked third, with a 10.46% market share, data from the National Federation of Motor Vehicle Distribution (Fenabrave) show.
GM’s vehicle production in Brazil has increased 20% this year, Owsianski said.
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“That represents 30,000 additional vehicles that our customers would have bought from some other brand if we had not had the capacity to produce them,” said Carlos Bibi, GM’s purchasing director for South America.
Asked about mounting competition from Chinese brands such as BYD—which ranks fourth in Brazilian vehicle sales and moved closer to GM in August—Owsianski said: “It is much better to compete in a market that keeps getting bigger.”
He did not rule out eventually producing hybrid and electric vehicles at GM’s own factories, which currently make only combustion-engine models, but offered no details about possible plans. At the same time, Owsianski stressed the strategy followed by GM, the world’s fourth-largest automaker, of manufacturing in the markets where it sells.
China ties
Still, amid what Owsianski described to suppliers as a “moment of profound transformation,” GM makes no secret of its need for Chinese partners.
The German executive recently traveled to China to discuss ways to expand GM’s electrified vehicle offering in South America, signing memorandums of understanding with local partners during the trip.
GM participates in two joint ventures in China. One is with SAIC, one of the country’s largest automakers. The other is SGMW, a partnership involving GM China, SAIC and Guangxi Automobile Group.
Hyundai partnership
GM also has a memorandum of understanding with South Korea’s Hyundai. In September 2024, as Chinese brands were beginning to gain ground in Brazil, GM and Hyundai—the world’s third-largest automaker—signed an agreement to jointly develop new vehicles for South America. Based on initial expectations, the future projects should by now be in the product-detailing stage.
Neither company, however, has said much about the partnership, and when they do, they provide few clues.
“We have a memorandum of understanding with Hyundai. Is it possible to have synergies among suppliers? Today, no. Partnerships bring several benefits, they bring scale and efficiency. But we cannot talk about something that does not exist today,” Bibi said when asked about potential purchasing synergies.
Local footprint
GM operates four vehicle plants in South America—São Caetano do Sul and São José dos Campos, in São Paulo state; Gravataí, in Rio Grande do Sul; and Rosario, Argentina—as well as an engine plant in Joinville, Santa Catarina. The automaker employs 14,000 people across South America. Its latest Brazilian investment cycle, totaling R$10.5 billion, runs through 2028.
In Brazil alone, GM works with 1,500 suppliers and purchases nearly R$30 billion worth of goods and services each year. Ten suppliers received the U.S. automaker’s global award recognizing them among its best worldwide.
While honoring the group, Owsianski said Brazil holds a strategic position within GM.
“And we want to increase local content and improve the competitiveness of what we produce here,” he said. “We have investments coming and new products coming.”
At the same time, the broader transformation of the auto industry—with shorter product-development cycles and increasing use of technology and connectivity—requires what Owsianski called “China speed.”
