Renault, whose sales have climbed 21% this year in Brazil, expects to continue that trend in 2012 with sales climbing four times faster than the market average, Renault Brazil president Jean Michel Jalinier told reporters.
It expects its market share to grow to 6.5% from the 5.6% it expects to have by the end of 2011.
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Total Brazilian sales of cars and light vehicles are expected to reach 3.63m units in 2011, a gain of 5% over 2010, according to Anfavea, the country’s vehicle manufacturers association, which predicts 4% to 5% growth in sales in 2012.
Renault is forecasting that sales will climb more than 15% to 230,000 in 2012 after ending this year slightly below 200,000 vehicles.
“The Brazilian market is very competitive and we’re in the game to be one of the main players,” Jalinier said, emphasising that the planned BR$1.5bn (US$810m) investment in operations between now and 2015 will go ahead regardless of the euro crisis since financing was funded locally and not from Paris.
The investments will allow Renault to produce 60 cars an hour at its Sao Jose dos Pinhais plant outside the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba, up from 45 an hour currently, said Gustavo Schmidt, commercial vice president of the company’s local unit. When partner Nissan moves out of these facilities, Renault capacity will jump by another 50,000 vehicles a year, he said.
Nissan has previously announced an investment of BR$2.6bn to construct an all-new manufacturing facility and to develop, industrialise and launch new products in Resende, in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
Meanwhile in Paris, Renault has announced that it plans to double annual output of its 1.6-litre diesel engines to 300,000 units by 2015 to meet demand from partners Nissan, Daimler and General Motors.
