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Opel has issued the following press release:
GM has invested 550 million euros in its Spanish plant in Zaragoza for the production of the new Opel Corsa. With a workforce of 7600 and an annual capacity of more than 400,000 vehicles, the factory in Spain’s Aragon region is GM’s largest European production facility. The Zaragoza plant has produced the Opel Corsa since it opened in 1982. It also builds the Opel Meriva.
This coming Monday, July 31, the first regular production model of the fourth-generation Corsa will roll off the assembly line. To prepare for this high volume production, manufacturing experts at the Aragon plant worked closely with the International Technical Development Center in R’sselsheim to define every manufacturing step involved in building the Corsa in Zaragoza and Eisenach. — Renault and Dongfeng's 300,000 vehicle annual production plan.
GM Espana has extensively modernized the Zaragoza facility for production of the new model. A new stamping station with two large presses is specifically for the forging of high-tensile sheet steel. Up to 40 times per minute, operating at a pressure of 3000 tons, the new presses form the sheet steel for the body of the new Corsa. In the new paint shop, the body in white is electrically coated with a zinc-manganese-nickel protective coating in an immersion bath. The paint shop will feature a special cleaning system that uses a method termed molecular sieve filtration to prevent CO2 emissions, present as molecules in the exhaust air from the painting process, from entering the atmosphere.
A wide spectrum of innovations has been introduced in the assembly of the new Corsa to further improve quality, productivity and occupational safety while at the same time reducing the workload of production staff. Ultrasound machines now test the body weld points, robots install windshields and rear windows, and new testing systems are in place for wheel installation and headlamp adjustment. — TVR's recent holding statement.
With this investment in its Zaragoza facility, GM has further improved its competitive position in Europe. GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster: ’The latest investments in Zaragoza ensure that our Spanish plant will remain one of the strong pillars the GM Europe production network is built on.’ — Pininfarina's Lagardere acquisition agreement.
In total, GM invested approximately 14 billion euros in Western Europe between 2001 and 2005; its main focus was on continually modernizing the plants as well as research and development.
