General Motors is deepening its manufacturing footprint across the Americas. It is adding about $1 billion to its Mexico operations and raising its Brazil plan by 3.5 billion reais (about $675 million) through 2028. For Latin American parts suppliers, that signals stable demand rather than a reshoring pullout.
What the money does: The two investments fund different markets and shouldn’t be combined.
Mexico: GM will start building the Chevrolet Aveo and Groove at Ramos Arizpe in Coahuila from 2027, targeting 80,000 units a year by 2030. Both models are currently imported from China through its SAIC-GM-Wuling venture, which ships about 130,000 China-built Chevrolets into Mexico each year. The move shifts that volume from a China import lane into domestic production.
Brazil: The funding supports Chevrolet portfolio renewal and hybrid production at GM’s São Paulo state plants. It also covers factory modernization and electrification
Why now: Two tariff barriers are making local production cheaper than imports. Mexico now applies a 50% tariff on vehicles from non-FTA countries, including China, up from 20% this year. That makes imported Aveo and Groove models less competitive at home. The US also keeps a 25% Section 232 duty on Mexican vehicles, though USMCA-compliant vehicles are taxed only on their non-US content.
GM Mexico said the move responds to price-sensitive domestic demand and was “not a response to the duties.”
The pattern: No major automaker is reshoring to the US. Four are anchoring deeper in Mexico and Brazil instead:
Stellantis: Committed 5.6 billion euros (about $6.13 billion) across South America through 2030
Volkswagen: a reported 20 billion reais for South America through 2028
Toyota: 11 billion reais in Brazil by 2030
GM: the new Mexico and Brazil plans above
What to watch: The USMCA joint review starts this year and is the biggest risk to GM’s Mexico bet. Tighter content rules or new limits on China-linked content could change the economics at Ramos Arizpe before production begins in 2027.
In Brazil, a fight is already live. GM revised its plan one day after the country renewed duty-free EV import quotas that favor BYD, prompting GM’s Fabio Rua to warn that the industry won’t be helped “through unilateral measures designed to benefit a single competitor.”
