Stellantis Vigo Plant

The "Stellantis Vigo plant" (Centro de Vigo de Stellantis) is a Spanish car manufacturing and assembly plant in the Province of Pontevedra, Galicia, (Spain) owned by Stellantis (the successor of Groupe PSA).

PSA Vigo Plant

In April 1958, Citroën, responding to the high tariff barriers that protected Spain's domestic auto-makers, established the Vigo car plant[1] in Galicia.[2] As of 2020, the Vigo car plant is one of the largest employers in the region, employing roughly 6,500 workers. It is the company's largest plant outside France and employs mainly outsourced workers.

Beginnings
Citroën 2CV van
Citroën GSA Break
Citroën C15. This was the first Vigo produced Citroën to break through the 1,000,000 barrier, although most of the cars produced avoided the attention of Dutch graffiti artists.

The plant's origins date back to the April 1958 establishment at Vigo of "Citroën Hispania," employing, during that first year, approximately 100 people. The choice of Vigo arose from the presence of the port and from the tax advantages arising from the existence of a Francisco Franco created "freeport" zone in Vigo. The first vehicle produced was the Furgoneta AZU, a locally assembled Citroën 2CV van, which would be joined at the plant a year later by the passenger car version of the same vehicle.[3] During the first year 400 were produced.

In August 1959, the company moved to the nearby district of Balaídos, and marked a time of steady expansion, with production rising to 1,700 vehicles, reflecting the increasing pace of demand (due to possible economic growth) in Spain. Production was focused on the domestic market due to poverty as well as the high mutual tariffs characteristic of Spain's economic relations with its neighbours. By 1960, production was up to 3,600 vehicles and over 500 employees. A decade after the creation of "Citroën Hispania", the factory site had virtually reached its current size.

Life became more difficult in the later 1960s and 1970s. The pace of economic growth became less frenetic and other automakers established a presence in Spain including Ford, who arrived with deep pockets and negotiated a deal with the government which from the beginning permitted (and, if their project were to succeed financially, required) capital intensive high volume low cost production methods for their Fiesta model.

Vigo continued to produce only the 2CV and its derivatives, small cars and vans, until 1971 when the mid-size (and by Spanish passenger car standards of the 1960s, "large") Citroën GS was added to the range. Nevertheless, the ongoing focus on inexpensive economy diesel cars and vans reduced the vulnerability of the business to slumps in demand for larger cars that would follow when the economy faltered during the 1970s.

The Oil Price shock of 1973 hit the automobile industry particularly hard, and in the case of Spain was followed in 1975 by the death of Francisco Franco, and a period of threatening socio-economic disruption and unrest as the ensuing régime change unfolded. Citroën's Vigo business nevertheless maintained unspectacular but steady growth, with a record output of more than 110,000 vehicles in 1975, by which time the plant was employing more than 6,000 people.

After Peugeot bought Citroën, the Peugeot 504 began production in Vigo in 1977. Later the Peugeot 505 was built at the plant. However, the bulk of production were Citroën cars such as the Citroën Visa, Citroën BX, Citroën AX, Citroën ZX, Citroën Xsara, Citroën Xsara Picasso and Citroën C4 Picasso.

More than 1.1 million units of the Citroën C15 van were produced from 1984 to 2005. In 1996, the Citroën Berlingo and Peugeot Partner began production.

On 15 July 2008 the plant celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in the presence of Thierry Peugeot and Juan Carlos I of Spain.

The site

The 66-hectare (160-acre) site includes factory units covering panel stamping, welding, painting and assembly.

Production

In 2005 Vigo produced 422,950 vehicles and 46,410 CKD kits. By 2007, supported by the success of the second generation Citroën Picasso,[4] the plant reported a record output of 547,000, grouped into three production teams.[5]

Centro de Vigo site produced 497,000 vehicles in 2020 and 495,400 in 2021.[6][7]

Citroën

Peugeot

Opel/Vauxhall
  • Opel/Vauxhall Combo Cargo, Combo-e Cargo, Combo Life and Combo-e Life (from 2018, 17,709 exemplaires as of 2019)

Toyota
  • Toyota ProAce City, ProAce City Electric, ProAce City Verso and ProAce City Verso Electric (from 2019, 505 units as of 2019)[9]

References
  1. Vigo Vigo, PSA Peugeot Citroën, 27 May 2010. Archived 7 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  2. PSA renforce son avance dans les utilitaires, L'Argus, 31 January 2008, page 55
  3. "DESCUBRIR EL CENTRO". PSA Peugeot Citroën. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  4. Christian Streiff conforte l'avenir de son site espagnol de Vigo, Bertrand Gay, Les Echos, 18 January 2008.
  5. Dossier de presse PSA Berlingo et Partner II, page 10.
  6. "L'usine PSA de Vigo devrait afficher cette année un volume de production de près de 500 000 unités". CCFA | Comité des Constructeurs Français d'Automobiles. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  7. Atlántico (22 December 2021). "Stellantis Vigo logra la tercera mejor producción de su historia pese a los microchips". Atlántico (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  8. "Bye-bye AX". Cithispa 2000 (87): 4. July 1997.
  9. "A propósito". Vigo (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 June 2021.

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