Audi will invest R$ 500 million in Paraná.

Danilo Macedo
Reporter from Agência Brasil

Brasilia – The German automaker Audi announced the construction of a factory in São José dos Pinhais (PR), with an investment of R$ 500 million. The announcement was made by Audi's global president, Rupert Stadler, after a meeting with President Dilma Rousseff at the Palácio do Planalto.

Stadler and the Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Fernando Pimentel, attributed the attraction of major automakers to the country to the Program for Incentives to Technological Innovation and Strengthening of the Automotive Production Chain (Inovar-Auto).

The program encourages automobile manufacturing through incentives such as tax breaks on the Industrialized Products Tax (IPI) of up to 30% for companies that promote innovation, research, and development in the country. "Inovar-Auto is a major driver of the process and provides a whole new perspective for investment in Brazil," said Stadler.

"To our delight, this is the ninth car factory to come to Brazil since we launched the automotive regime, Inovar-Auto. This shows that the effort we made was successful and that companies are, in fact, coming, and those that were already here are expanding their activities," said the minister.

Pimentel highlighted the arrival of luxury car manufacturers as a novelty. "Brazil has never had factories in the high-end car segment. And we have three announced: BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz. And Land Rover is about to [announce]," he said.

According to him, the segment stimulates the technological development of the national industry. "It's where there's the most embedded technology and, therefore, it will attract suppliers with greater technological capacity, demand more qualified workers, and all of this pulls our industry in the direction we want, which is a technologically well-equipped industry," he explained.

The first vehicles produced at the São José dos Pinhais factory are expected to reach the market by the end of 2015. Initially, two models will be assembled in Brazil: the A3 sedan and the Q3 SUV.

The global president of Audi said that the country's stable economic situation, with growth prospects, in addition to the improvement in the population's purchasing power, leads him to believe in a return on investment. "The luxury vehicle market in Brazil is quite small, but Audi believes it will grow enormously in the coming years, with the social changes that are taking place, and President Dilma Rousseff also believes in this."

Stadler said that, during the meeting, President Dilma demonstrated knowledge of the technology sector and showed interest in learning about Audi's operations in the BRICS countries, where the automaker has a presence, such as Russia, China, and India. "For Audi, it's important to return to Brazil and begin making significant investments, after China, Russia, and India, because we intend to take advantage of the strong growth of the Brazilian market," he concluded.

Edited by: Beto Coura