Leoni expands production facility in Mexico
Cable harness manufacturer Leoni (Nuremberg, Germany) has expanded its production facility for automotive wiring systems in Cuauhtémoc, Mexico. This is the company’s response to the increasing demand for electric cars in North America.
Leoni’s subsidiary in Mexico was founded in 1998 and has since become a major player in North America’s automotive cable business. With a product portfolio ranging from simple single-core cables to complex multi-core cables for driver assistance systems and data cables for autonomous driving, the site meets the needs of Tier 1 and Tier 2 customers in the region. Charging cables and high-voltage cables for electric mobility applications are the latest addition to the portfolio and are experiencing rapidly growing demand, which has now led to the expansion of the production facilities.
In 2020, Phase I of the EMOMEX (E-Mobility Mexico) project was completed. It included $27m of investment in equipment and machinery for the design, development and production of high voltage cables and cables for charging systems. More than 120 additional highly skilled employees were hired.
Then in 2022, the expansion now in operation was necessary to meet the increasing demand from the market. The new building increased the production area by more than 40% to 10,723 m². Over the next five years, Leoni will invest a further approx. $16.8m in corresponding production facilities.
Wire harnesses are central components in the construction of cars. The Russian war against Ukraine showed how important they really are: when a Leoni production plant in Ukraine fell into Russian hands at the beginning of the war, the entire production of several European vehicle manufacturers was blocked for weeks. This is because the cable harnesses are manufactured individually for each car and delivered promptly to the production line according to the just-in-time logistics scheme.
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