The American group Visteon has inaugurated a strategic research and innovation center in Tunis, confirming an upscaling of its investments in Tunisia in engineering and intelligent automobile technologies.
The American group Visteon, a global player in automotive technologies, officially inaugurated a strategic research and innovation center in Tunis, confirming Tunisia’s anchoring in the value chain of the intelligent automobile industry.
This new division marks an upscaling of the group’s activities in the country, focusing on engineering, software and the development of high value-added solutions. It is part of an investment trajectory initiated for several years by Visteon in Tunisia.
An innovation center at the heart of Visteon’s strategy
Inaugurated on Friday in Tunis, the Visteon research and innovation center already employs nearly 200 Tunisian engineers. According to Afef Chachi, chief of staff of the Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, the workforce should gradually reach 500 engineers in the coming years, with the creation of new highly qualified jobs.
This center reflects a structural change in the nature of industrial investments, allowing the transition from component manufacturing activities to the design of advanced technological solutions intended for the Tunisian and international markets. It aims in particular to develop software, intelligent electronic systems and integrated solutions for new generation vehicles.
Present in Tunisia since 2005, Visteon has already created 560 jobs there and plans to total 900 by 2028, with a management rate of around 40%. Globally, the group has 14 factories and 18 research and development centers, and employs more than 10,000 people.
A strategic engineering center for the group
Visteon Chairman and CEO Sachin Lawande highlighted that this new center will serve as a strategic engineering hub for the group. He highlighted Tunisian skills as a determining factor in the choice of Tunisia, affirming that the country offers an environment conducive to the expansion of engineering, design and software development activities.
For her part, the president of the Tunisian Investment Authority (TIA), Namia Ayadi, estimated that this establishment confirms the attractiveness of Tunisia for investments with high added value, thanks to the quality of human resources and the existing industrial ecosystem.
Afef Chachi, for her part, recalled the weight of the automotive components sector in Tunisia, which brings together more than 300 companies, generates around 120,000 jobs and achieved nearly $3 billion in exports in 2024.
A project prepared for a long time
The inauguration of the Tunis center constitutes the culmination of a dynamic initiated in 2024. At this period, Visteon announced the launch of an automotive software engineering center eventually bringing together 500 engineers, dedicated to the development of software for smart cars.
At the same time, the group launched the extension of its factory in Tunisia over an area of 20,000 m², with an investment estimated at 85 million dollars. This facility, presented as the first in Africa to use cutting-edge technologies for the manufacturing of components for intelligent vehicles, was expected to generate 700 jobs in a first phase, before reaching 1,000 positions.
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