The carmaker has invested $1.27m in the 1,500-square-metre facility and has said it will improve logistics flow and expedite the distribution process of new cars through the consolidation of ‘by-pack’ operations – the parts and components that are normally added to the car on arrival at the dealership, including such things as hubcaps, the owner's manual and windscreen wipers.
VW said the inclusion of the parts packaging process at the warehouse will meet the high standards of its new logistics concept now being implemented throughout the group.
Last year the Puebla plant produced 510,000 vehicles and 596,000 engines.
The carmaker has also recently been critical of terminal operator SSA Mexico’s operations at the port of Veracruz, now North America’s busiest vehicle handling port. SSA Mexico handles 75% of the vehicle throughput at the port. However, at a recent transport and logistics seminar, VW revealed when it had to organise additional storage area at the port to handle the export of its finished vehicles SSA Mexico, which has the concession to handle this type of traffic, tried to charge VW an “unimaginable” amount of money to lease the required area. This prompted the carmaker to negotiate directly with the port authority, which subsequently agreed to offer the company a direct lease on the land at a lower cost.
VW said that this is the only way it has been able to operate at Veracruz and avoid adding additional logistics costs to outbound vehicles from its Puebla assembly plant.
The company has reported robust growth in the Mexican economy and seen its passenger car deliveries within the country rise 6.2% to around 116,500 vehicles between January and September this year. Demand for the new Jetta, the Clasico and the Seat Ibiza was particularly strong according to its latest interim report.
North American sales as a whole are up more than 25% to 608,500 over the same period compared to last year.
