Audi invests $19.2 million to restart Brazil plant

According to foreign media reports, Audi, the brand of the Volkswagen Group, announced on June 29 that it will invest 100 million reais (about 19.22 million US dollars) to re-invest in its Barra, Brazil, under a plan disclosed at the end of last year. The plant in that state starts production.

Initially, the plant will have a maximum capacityof 4,000 vehicles per year , the company said in a statement .Audi will build the Audi Q3 and Q3 Sportback at the plant in Sao Jose dos Pinhais, which will initially be exclusively for the Brazilian market.The San Jose dos Pinhai plant covers an area of ​​1.3 million square meters and employs 130 people. It is Audi's only factory in South America.

Image credit: Audi

Audi's production history in Brazil began in 1999 with the opening of the plant in San Jose dos Pinhai, Paraná, where the first-generation Audi A3 was produced until 2006.

In 2012, when the Brazilian government created Inovar-Auto, a subsidy program aimed at enhancing technological innovation and car production, Audi decided to restart car production in Brazil and invested around 150 million euros.Audi began producing the upgraded A3 at the plant in 2015 and the Q3 in 2016.

In 2020, Audi discontinued the line after the production cycle of its previous version of the Q3 SUV ended.In November of the same year, Volkswagen suspended production at the plant due to a lack of electric components.Audi says the Q3 has become the gold standard in its segment since its launch in February 2020, becoming Audi's top-selling model in the Brazilian market in its first year on the market.