The Eberspaecher Group has opened a new exhaust technology plant in Tondela, Portugal, for the production of passenger car exhaust systems for European automobile manufacturers. Recently acquired orders have necessitated expansion of production capacity of the European Exhaust Technology division.

The 27,500 square metre facility will cater to European automobile manufacturers in Spain, Portugal and Northern Morocco with hot-end and cold-end components for diesel and petrol vehicles. This includes complete exhaust systems as well as gasoline particulate filters and catalytic converters.

By 2020, the plant is scheduled to achieve an annual production capacity of 2.5 million exhaust system components at full production levels. This equates to producing a catalytic converter on the automatic and highly flexible production lines every 25 seconds at full capacity.

For Eberspaecher, this represents the first successful entrepreneurial step in Portugal. Dr. Thomas Waldhier, COO of the Eberspaecher Exhaust Technology division, said: “This plant represents an important milestone for the expansion of our European exhaust technology production network. Tondela provides us with the optimal starting point for establishing closer ties with our customers on the entire Iberian Peninsula. In addition to the excellent logistical integration, the availability of very well trained personnel also represented a persuasive argument.”

Eberspaecher supplies exhaust emission conversion technologies from approximately 30 production sites globally. The company last expanded its European production capacity with a plant for passenger car exhaust technology in Oradea, Romania. Its global growth strategy will now see an Asian Tech Center, currently under construction, being set up in Shanghai. In future, this will concentrate the entire testing expertise and prototyping activities in exhaust system technology for its customers in Asia.