Volkswagen suspends production of cars in Brazil – 06/27/2023 – Market

Volkswagen said this Tuesday (27th) that it will stop production at its factories in São José dos Pinhais (PR), São Bernardo do Campo and Taubaté (SP) due to the stagnation of the automotive market.

The announcement takes place while the incentive measures for popular cars adopted by the federal government at the beginning of the month are still not reflected in the number of car licenses.

According to data from Renavam (National Register of Motor Vehicles), the average until Monday (19) is 6,285 units sold per day. The number, which includes light and heavy vehicles, indicates a decrease of 20.4% compared to the same period in May.

Volkswagen said that the factory in São José dos Pinhais (PR), where the T-Cross is produced, has had a layoff shift since June 5, with a duration expected between two and five months. The other shift will be stopped between this Monday (26) and Friday (30), on a bank of hours basis.

At the Taubaté (SP) unit, where the Polo Track and Novo Polo are manufactured, the two production shifts will be interrupted this week, also on an hourly basis.

At the Anchieta factory, in São Bernardo do Campo, where the Novo Virtus, Novo Polo, Nivus and Saveiro are produced, the company has filed a ten-day collective vacation for both shifts as of July 10th.

Volkswagen claims that the flexibility tools are provided for in a collective agreement signed between the Union and its employees.

‘Popular car’ program has already used 84% of resources

The resources requested by automakers in the plan that gives discounts on cars, launched by the Lula government (PT), already correspond to 84% of the total available and reach R$ 420 million. The data was disclosed last Friday (23) by the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services.

The total amount made available for the light vehicle modality was R$ 500 million. Discounts sponsored by public coffers range from R$2,000 to R$8,000, but many companies have applied higher margins on their own. See the full list of discounted cars.

Fiat, from the Stellantis group, is the automaker that requested the most resources from the program, with R$ 190 million in tax credits. Alone, it consumed 38% of the volume of tax credit authorized by the government. Volkswagen requested BRL 60 million.

Among the other automakers that joined the plan, Peugeot Citroen asked for BRL 50 million, while Hyundai and Renault added BRL 40 million in credits. R$ 20 million were also authorized for GM and R$ 10 million for Honda, Nissan and Toyota.