Following last month’s inauguration of a new plant in China that will build the new Golf, VW said it will manufacturer the popular compact car in Brazil as well.
Volkswagen will invest €170 million ($230 million) to expand its existing Curitiba plant in the South American country to make room for the seventh-generation Golf. The facility currently produces four variants of the VW Fox – Band Fox, Fox BlueMotion, CrossFox and SpaceFox – and will also make the Audi A3 Sedan in the future.
“Brazil is becoming one of the world’s largest vehicle production and sales markets. With the Modular Transverse Toolkit (MQB), we are now bringing our most advanced production technology to Brazil, too,” said Dr. Michael Macht, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG responsible for Group production and the South America region.
The expansion of the Curitiba plant will increase its daily production capacity by up to 30 percent. Until local production starts, the new Golf will be imported to Brazil from Germany. As you probably know, VW will build the new Golf in Mexico as well, starting from the first quarter next year.
VW’s most successful model in Brazil is the Gol, which was the best-selling car in the country in 2012 for the 26th consecutive year. Volkswagen is also the largest exporter in the Brazilian automotive industry, with more than 3 million vehicles exported last year.
By Dan Mihalascu
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