JATCO to Increase Operations at Aguascalientes Plant

Q: What are the differentiators that have made JATCO one of the main players in the automotive transmission market?

A: JATCO, headquartered in Shizuoka, Japan, was established in 1999 but has numerous plants across the globe and about 12,700 employees. Our stakeholders are Nissan Motor Company, Mitsubishi Motors and Suzuki Motor Corporation. We have a strong offer of transmission control technology, with our main product being several models of the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). The latest model is the CVT-X transmission, offering the best technological solution in CVT market. In 2021, we had a cumulative production of 55 million units globally.

We are a passionate and motivated company with specialized knowledge that ensures we can exceed customer expectations. JATCO’s main goal is to develop new possibilities for mobility using technology and passion. We believe in facilitating the movement of people and goods. Our mission is to provide new value to mobility by providing clean, safe, comfortable and exciting products and services. We are also working on reducing CO2 emissions, water consumption and waste and are promoting corporate social responsibility activities.

 Q: How has demand for CVT systems evolved among other OEMs and how has JATCO marketed its products? 

A: Our main automotive customers are Nissan Mexicana and Nissan North America but we also sell to Renault, GM, Infiniti, Compass and Renault-Samsung. We have also worked with Chrysler and while our contract ended, we still produce for one of its manufacturing units. While Nissan was growing, we did not have the time to look for new customers but, now, we are looking for new clients in the Mexican, South America and the US market.

Q: How would you describe JATCO Mexico’s engagement with its workers and the community in Aguascalientes?

A: We have a strong relationship with the government of Aguascalientes and have collaborated with it on many projects. We recently invited Aguascalientes Gov. Martín Orozco to the launching ceremony of our new CVT-X, which will replace the CVT-8. In collaboration with local authorities, we built a childcare center close to our plant and created the JATCO high school program, which now has 100 graduates.

We have two locations in Aguascalientes and a production capacity of almost 2 million units per year. We established JATCO in Mexico in 2003 and started production at the first site in November 2005 and at the second site in September 2014. As of April 2022, we have about 4,098 associates in Mexico. From 2003 to 2020, we produced 15 million units. In terms of recent introductions to Mexico, we now have the CVT-X (AXO) for the Rogue, X-Trail and the Kadjar vehicles and the CVT-X (CBO) for the Kicks and Sentra models.    

Q: What are JATCO’s goals for the near-term?

A: The market is moving at a high speed toward electrification so JATCO is developing products for EVs. We also want to expand our mass production sites located in Aguascalientes and other cities in Mexico and the US. We are approaching OEMs to make our expansion a reality.

JATCO manufactures continuously variable and automatic transmissions. The Japanese company is the result of a business participation between Nissan Motor Company, Mitsubishi Motors and Suzuki Motor Corporation as stakeholders.