Committed to spend BRL2bn (US$900m), 11 suppliers have signed contracts with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) to build 16 factories surrounding the automaker’s new factory complex in north east Brazil.
Negotiations took longer than expected and likely was one reason for the 12-month delay of start of construction.
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These new factories will supply 40% of parts used in production and will provide 4,000 new jobs in a rural region of low incomes and limited industrial activity. The site is in Goiana, 70km (43 miles) north of the Pernambuco state capital Recife.
The main supplier is the FCA group’s Magneti Marelli, set to build six production units for parts such as fuel tanks, stamped parts, brakes, clutch, exhaust systems and others.
Other companies are Adler (carpets and roof lining), Lear (seats), Saint-Gobain (glass), Powercoat (paint), Denso (HVAC), PMC (metal structures), Tiberina (chassis), Pirelli (tyres), Faurecia (plastics) and Brose (window winder mechanisms).
Included in FCA’s overall spend in Brazil of BRL4bn/$1.8bn (4,500 direct employees) is a new research and development, innovation and engineering centre in Recife.
Stefan Ketter, FCA global manufacturing chief and head of the Brazilian ‘Pernambuco Project’, said: “This centre will operate fully integrated with similar facilities in Italy and the US.” FCA expects to hire up to 50 engineers and technicians for the centre within the next few years.
Prototypes of the new plant’s first confirmed product – the Fiat ‘small wide platform’-based Jeep Renegade – will be ready next September. FCA expects to open the factory at the end of this year and start production in the second quarter of 2015.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has altered the model range to be made at Goiana.
Sources speaking exclusively to just-auto said the latest timeline is:
- Jeep Renegade (521 Project/B Small-Wide architecture): Q1 2015
- Fiat Pick-Up (226 Project/C-Evo architecture): Q1 2016
- Jeep SUV (551 Project /C-Evo architecture): Q1 2016
- Fiat Punto Saloon (New Linea): Q3 2016
- Fiat Viaggio (343 Project/C-Evo architecture): Q1 2018
The two passenger cars’ designs are yet to be defined.
Meanwhile, Fiat has little new to show Brazilian buyers in 2014. The Linea was slightly updated early in April and the Uno will get a mid-cycle update in the second half of this year.
