If at first you don’t succeed, try again – having failed once in Brazil with an ambitious A-class production programme that never achieved expected volume, Daimler is coming back with a new car assembly plant – in Iracemápolis near São Paulo – to build the next-generation C-Class and the GLA.
Daimler announced on Wednesday (2 October) that Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff had jointly signed a framework contract with Andreas Renschler, management board member for production and procurement at Mercedes-Benz Cars and Mercedes-Benz Vans, and Philipp Schiemer, CEO Mercedes-Benz do Brasil & Daimler Latin America.
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The first vehicles are scheduled roll off the line as early as 2016. Daimler is spending around EUR170m in the first stage.
Renschler said: “Brazil is an important future market. With our local production we accept the challenge and take on the competition.
“With the next generation of the C-Class and the GLA, we will be localising two highly attractive products with top Mercedes quality, for which we see great potential in the Brazilian premium segment.”
“With the local production of cars, Mercedes-Benz stands out as the only company to act in all segments of mobility in Brazil, with cars, trucks, buses and vans”, said Schiemer. “The proximity of our production footprint in São Paulo and Minas Gerais will also allow us to have a greater integration among plants and exchange possibilities for the employees.”
Mercedes expects to assemble up to 20,000 vehicles a year in the new plant which will create around 1,000 new direct jobs and about 3,000 at suppliers.
Mercedes-Benz do Brasil will soon complete the purchase of land at Iracemápolis so building can start.
The plant in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais state, was built in the late 90s for the A-class which never achieved planned volume. The plant was then used to assemble C-class models (the saloon and CLC) for the US and other markets before being converted to build heavy trucks.
Resuming production in Brazil is a strategic necessity for Mercedes after rivals Audi last month announced it would resume Brazil production – starting with the A3 saloon – at the VW plant in São José dos Pinhais, in Paraná state, and BMW a year ago announced plans for a 30,000 unit plant in Santa Catarina.
