American automotive giant GM (General Motors) recently officiated its new manufacturing plant in Thailand in Rayong which is their first diesel factory in the region.
The US200million facility would be the first to roll out the new Duramax 4 engines which will be fitted into the Chevrolet Colorado pickup vehicles which is set to be launched later this year. This is where the plant is expected to produce the 2.4 and the 2.8 liter versions that are coupled with force-induction and aluminium cylinder heads as well as the overhead cams.
According to GM, the plant is able to and is expected to roll out 120,000 engines per year which will then be channelled out to its other manufacturing plants for assembly. It will create jobs to some 500 employees by the end of this year where the factory will be fitted with the state-of-the-art laser-guided equipments and computer systems. The facility has an in-house climate control system which is designed to provide the best environment to manufacture engines as well as a dust-free premise.
Unlike conventional factories, the new plant adopts an eco-friendly environment where the lighting system is said to consume 40% less energy as compared to normal plants. The Thai-built components is reported to produce US94 million of its engine production by next year.
