General Motors to invest $540 mln in Central Mexico

General Motors will invest $540 million to build fuel-efficient engines at its plant in central Mexico.

General Motors de Mexico said the first phase of the project at its plant in Toluca involves the production of aluminum parts, and the second phase the manufacture of four-cylinder, 1.6-liter and 1.8-liter engines, mostly for cars produced in Mexico.

GM has four plants in Mexico, and has invested some $5 billion here since 2006.

The auto major was left reeling under the industry slump when the global economic crisis hit. It received 49.5 billion dollars from the US Treasury and emerged from a bankruptcy restructuring in 2009. It successfully returned to public trading in November 2010 by raising 23.1 billion dollars in an initial stock offering - the largest in history.