Jatco Plans Second Transmission Plant in Mexico

Nissan Motor Co. affiliate Jatco Ltd. plans to spend $220 million to erect its second factory in Aguascalientes, Mexico. The plant will begin making as many as 400,000 continuously variable transmissions per year by mid-2014.

Fuji City-Japan-based Jatco says most of the new facility's output will supply the nearby assembly plant Nissan is scheduled to open at the end of this year. That facility, the carmaker's second in Aguascalientes, will produce subcompact cars.

Jatco adds that its plant also will begin supplying automatic gearboxes based on technology licensed from Daimler AG to equip Nissan and Infiniti brand vehicles in 2016. Nissan has not confirmed media speculation that its new assembly plant will eventually make small luxury cars for the Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz brands.

Jatco opened its first transmission factory in Aguascalientes in 2005. The company plans to expand that facility's annual capacity to 1.3 million gearboxes this summer.