Spain - American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM) has started construction of a new 15,000 sq.m facility in Viladecans - a town located 20km southwest of Barcelona. The company says it will house the production of powertrain components for several car makers, such as Renault, BMW, Daimler, Porsche, Audi and Ford.
“As AAM continues to diversify and expand our global customer base and product mix, our new Barcelona facility will be an integral part of our European manufacturing footprint,” said David Dauch, AAM chairman and CEO. “The new facility will help AAM meet customer demand for products that help reduce noise and vibrations from downsized engines.”
Specifically, the plant will make a range of damper products such as compression dampers, PV bonded dampers, isolation pulleys, in-mould bonded dampers and damped gears. It believes that demand for these kind of products will rise, particularly as hybrid vehicles become increasingly popular.
Statistics from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) show that registrations of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) grew by over 47% in the first quarter of 2018.
