Brazil and Mexico could be a source of fuel efficient vehicles for Canada and the U.S.
General Motors Company announced today that it is creating a new regional organization “to meet rising customer demand” in South America by splitting it off from the existing International Operations division.
GM South America will be headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil and will be led by Jaime Ardila, currently president and general manager of GM Mercosur.
Ardila becomes president, GM South America and will report directly to GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre. As a member of the Executive Committee and regional president, Ardila becomes the highest-ranking Hispanic in the company.
GM’s largest national market is the United States (arguably if you exclude required joint ventures in China), followed by China, Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Italy.
GM has a long history in the area. It opened its first factory in Argentina in 1925., and has since invested billions of dollars in the region, which recently includes a new assembly plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, as well as a design center in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil.
Leaving UAW politics aside, the region could become a source of low-cost, fuel-efficient vehicles for the U.S. and Canada.
The new GM South America includes GM’s existing sales and manufacturing operations in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, as well as sales activities in those countries and Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
GM South America currently has 29,000 employees. As part of GM’s global product operations organization, GM South America has product design and engineering capabilities, which will allow it to continue creating local versions of cars and trucks from GM’s global product architectures. In the first five months of the year, GM sold 394,000 vehicles in South America and its market share was more than 20%, which depending on how you cut the numbers makes it number one.
“The GM International Operations team is doing a great job expanding our global presence,” said Whitacre. “However, with the rapidly growing markets in Asia, the Middle East and Russia, we need the GMIO team focused exclusively on those countries that are critical to our growth.”
In related moves:
- Denise C. Johnson, vice president, Labor Relations, will become president and managing director, GM do Brazil, effective July 1, 2010. She will report to Ardila.
- Catherine L. Clegg, GM North America manufacturing manager, succeeds Johnson as vice president, Labor Relations, effective July 1, 2010. She will report to Diana Tremblay, GM vice president, Manufacturing and Labor Relations. A successor for Clegg will be announced in the near future.