The Stellantis Vigo plant (''Centro de Vigo de Stellantis'') is a Spanish car manufacturing and assembly plant in

Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...

, Galicia,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, owned by

Stellantis Stellantis N.V. is a multinational automaker formed in 2021 through the Mergers and acquisitions, merger of the Italian–American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group, PSA (Peugeot S.A.) Group. The company's hea ...

(formerly

Groupe PSA Peugeot S.A., trading as Groupe PSA () (formerly PSA Peugeot Citroën from 1991 to 2016) was a French multinational automotive manufacturing company which produced automobiles and motorcycles under the Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhal ...

). The plant was established by

Citroën Citroën ()The double-dot diacritic over the 'e' is a diaeresis () indicating the two vowels are sounded separately, and not as a diphthong. is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded on 4 June 19 ...

in April 1958 due to the high tariff barriers that protected Spain's domestic auto-makers.

History

Citroen 2CV fourgonette dept 35 in Essex

"Citroën Hispania" initially employed around 100 individuals. The selection of Vigo was influenced by its port and tax incentives from a "freeport" zone created by

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...

. The first vehicle manufactured was the Furgoneta AZU, a locally assembled

Citroën 2CV The Citroën 2CV (, , lit. "two horses", meaning "two Tax horsepower#France, ''taxable'' horsepower") is an economy car produced by the French company Citroën from 1948 to 1990. Introduced at the 1948 Paris Paris Auto Show, Salon de l'Automobi ...

van, with the passenger car version following a year later. The first-year production totaled 400 vehicles. In August 1959, the operations moved to the nearby Balaídos district, marking a phase of gradual expansion as production increased to 1,700 vehicles. Production mainly catered to the domestic market due economic conditions and high mutual tariffs with neighboring countries. By 1960, production reached 3,600 vehicles with a workforce of about 500. Vigo's production remained limited to the 2CV and its derivatives until the mid-size

Citroën GS The Citroën GS is a front-engine, front-drive, four or five door, five passenger family car manufactured and marketed by Citroën in two series: for model years 1970–1979 in fastback saloon and estate bodystyles and subsequently as the GSA f ...

began production at the plant in 1971. Citroën's Vigo facility sustained moderate growth, with a record output of about 110,000 vehicles in 1975 and employment rising to about 6,000 individuals. After

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French automobile brand owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was established in 1810, making it the oldest car company in the world. On 20 November 1858, Émile Peugeot applie ...

bought Citroën, the

Peugeot 504 The Peugeot 504 is a mid-size, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive automobile manufactured and marketed by Peugeot from 1968 to 1983 over a single generation, primarily in four-door Sedan (automobile), sedan and station wagon, wagon configurations – ...

began production in Vigo in 1977, followed by the

Peugeot 505 The Peugeot 505 is a large family car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1979 to 1992 in Sochaux, France. It was also manufactured in various other countries including Argentina (by Sevel from 1981 to 1995), China, Thailand, Indon ...

. However, the bulk of production were Citroën cars such as the

Citroën Visa The Citroën Visa is a five-door, front-engine, front wheel drive supermini car, supermini manufactured and marketed by Citroën from 1978 to 1988 in gasoline and diesel variants. 1,254,390 examples were ultimately manufactured over a single gene ...

Citroën BX The Citroën BX is a large family car which was produced by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1982 to 1994. In total, 2,315,739 BXs were built during its 12-year history. The hatchback was discontinued in 1993 with the arrival of the Xantia, ...

Citroën AX The Citroën AX is a supermini which was built by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1986 to 1998. It was launched at the 1986 Paris Motor Show to replace the Citroën Visa and Citroën LNA. Overview Development of this model started in 19 ...

Citroën ZX The Citroën ZX is a Compact car, small family car produced by the French manufacturer Citroën between 1991 and 1998. At the beginning of the 1990s, the ZX was Citroën's entry in the class traditionally dominated in Europe by the Ford Escort ( ...

, Citroën Xsara,

Citroën Xsara Picasso The Citroën Xsara Picasso is a five-seater, five-door compact MPV produced by Citroën from 1999 to 2012. It was based on the Citroën Xsara, Xsara hatchback platform. Trim range At the time of its release in December 1999 (June 2000 in the ...

and

Citroën C4 Picasso The Citroën C4 SpaceTourer (formerly the Citroën C4 Picasso), also spelled Citroen C4 SpaceTourer in some other languages (formerly the Citroen C4 Picasso), is a five-seater car produced by French manufacturer Citroën with a seven-seater versi ...

. About 1.1 million units of the

Citroën C15 The Citroën C15 is a panel van produced by the France, French manufacturer Citroën from late 1984 until 2006. It was the successor to the Citroën Acadiane, which had replaced the Citroën 2CV vans that pioneered the box van format from the ...

van were produced from 1984 to 2005. The

Citroën Berlingo The Citroën Berlingo and Peugeot Partner are a range of vans produced since 1996 and marketed under the Citroën and Peugeot marques. They are sold as light commercial vehicles or as a passenger Minivan, multi-purpose-vehicle variant with rear ...

and

Peugeot Partner Peugeot (, , ) is a French automobile brand owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was established in 1810, making it the oldest car company in the world. On 20 November 1858, Émile Peugeot applie ...

began production in 1996.

Site

The site includes factory units covering panel stamping, welding, painting and assembly.

Production

In 2005 Vigo produced 422,950 vehicles and 46,410

CKD kits A knock-down kit (also knockdown kit, knocked-down kit, or simply knockdown or KD) is a collection of parts required to assemble a product. The parts are typically manufactured in one country or region, and then exported to another country or r ...

. By 2007, supported by the success of the second generation Citroën Picasso, the plant reported a record output of 547,000, grouped into three production teams. Centro de Vigo site produced 497,000 vehicles in 2020 and 495,400 in 2021.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vigo Psa Factory Buildings and structures in Galicia (Spain) Motor vehicle assembly plants in Spain 1958 establishments in Spain