Brazilian market surpasses Germany and is second largest of Volks in the world
Valor Econômico
With 15% of participation in the global sales of the brand, Brazil overcame Germany and became the second largest market of the German Group Volkswagen in the world. According to Thomas Schmall, President of maker in Brazil, the performance of the Brazilian subsidiary only ranked behind China's. "It could be more, but China has grown more than us," commented the Executive during the presentation to the press of the new version of the Jetta sedan, which was officially launched yesterday evening.
The rise of the national market of vehicles - which continues renewing record marks this year - puts Brazil in the spotlight in the plans of Volkswagen to become the world largest automaker by 2018. The plan for the country includes investments of R$ 6.2 billion (US$ 3.7 billion) in a cycle that goes from 2010 to 2014 - and the intention of starting in the country the production of an economic car, ranging from R$ 20 thousand (US$ 11.76 thousand) to R$ 23 thousand (US$ 13.53 thousand) - whose market, according to the bet of the maker, should double in size within four or five years. Half of the investment is planned for the plant of São Bernardo, the largest plant of the company in Brazil that makes the models of Gol, Saveiro, Polo, Kombi and Parati.
In the comparison with the same period in 2010, the sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles of the German brand in Brazil grew 18.8% from January until Wednesday, to 148.43 thousand units. The performance exceeded the market average, which grew 9.6% in the period, according to Volks. According to Schmall, the expectation is that the growth of the brand slows down to something between 10% and 12% by the end of the month, due to a strengthening in the basis for comparison. In the second half of March 2010, consumers rushed to the dealerships to take advantage of the last days with reduction in the IPI (Excise Tax) in the sale of cars.
"We managed to conquer such growth without major launchings", said the Executive, adding the goal is to keep the subsidiary among the three largest operations in the world in the long term. The expectation is to, at least, keep up with the growth of the domestic market of cars and light commercial vehicles this year, which, according to the calculations of the company, will grow nearly 5% until December. This year, the maker has fought for the market leadership with Fiat. Until the first half of March, the difference in favor of the Italian maker was of only 3 thousand cars, approximately.