The company’s objective by the end of 2030 is to manufacture 100,000 vehicles per year in Argentina, in a plant that will generate 6,000 highly qualified direct jobs.
Chery plans to make Argentina the regional base for new energy cars, given the lithium reserves available in northern Argentina. In this way, together with the current Chery plant in Brazil, the Latin American markets will be fully covered.
During the meeting it was also announced that the batteries for these vehicles will be produced in the province of Jujuy, by the Chinese company Gotion.
Gotion last year announced its comprehensive strategic partnership with Jujuy state company Jemse for the joint establishment of a lithium battery cell factory in Perico.
The cells that are manufactured in Jujuy, in addition to being used by Chery, will be used in Germany, India, the United States, Spain and Vietnam, reported the Gotion company.
At the end of the meeting, De Mendiguren remarked “the importance that the investments that arrive in Argentina have as a fundamental pillar the industrialization of a strategic resource such as lithium.”
“This is the type of investment that we want to encourage and attract to Argentina,” the official stressed.
Along these lines, this week the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, met with Ricardo Pignanelli, head of the Smata mechanical union, to discuss the installation of two new auto parts factories, as well as the Chery production plant.
In the cities of Hefei and Wuhu, both located in the Chinese province of Anhui, Vaca Narvaja visited the Gotion and Chery plants, together with the presidents of both companies. Likewise, he held work meetings where the projects of both companies in Argentina were analyzed and the goals were set up to 2030.
“The alliance between Gotion and Chery is one more example of the importance of continuing to promote investments of Chinese origin in our country. Mining is sometimes spoken of as a merely extractive activity, but this conception shows a certain level of ignorance regarding extraction and subsequent industrialization of lithium,” said the Argentine ambassador.
Vaca Narvaja highlighted that “in new energy, China is definitely the most advanced country in the world”, and assured that “this type of investment allows us to consolidate a strong industrial imprint linked to the presence of one of the most valuable resources in the world that is found in abundance in our country, as is the case with lithium”.
The Argentine Embassy in China reported that a Chery delegation will travel to Argentina this month to finalize details of the projects.
electric vehicle numbers
In Argentina, Sales of hybrid and electric vehicles during 2022 reached 7,848 patented units -7,588 hybrids and 260 pure electric-, with an increase of 33% compared to 2021 and 231% compared to 2020, according to the electric vehicle chamber, Automotive Market of Argentina. Founded in 1997 in Wuhu, Chery is one of the leading Chinese automakers.
It has been the largest vehicle exporter in its country for 19 years: of the 961,000 units it sold in 2021, more than 250,000 were abroad.
The State is its controller and another Chinese auto giant, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), has 20% of its shares.
Source: Ambito
