Stellantis will invest R$13 billion in Pernambuco, 43% of the total expected in Brazil by 2030

Less than two months after the announcement of the investment cycle that foresees R$30 billion in Brazil between 2025 and 2030, the Stellantis revealed this Thursday, 25th, that R$ 13 billion – that is, 43% of the total – will be disbursed at the group’s factory in Goiana, in the north of Pernambuco. The confirmation took place during a meeting between the automaker’s directors and the state governor, Raquel Lyra.

Without providing further information, such as the names of the cars that will enter the assembly lines in Pernambuco, the automaker only says that new models are planned, some of them new to the Brazilian market. The platforms that will be installed in Stellantis factories within the new investment cycle will allow the production of both conventional cars, powered by gasoline or ethanol, as well as hybrid or purely electric vehicles.

The plan also includes expanding the supplier base around the Goiana factory, from the current 38 to more than 100 in the coming years. The objective, in this case, is to bring together parts suppliers from the Stellantis hub in the region to reduce logistics costs, given the automaker’s concern with preserving the factory’s competitiveness after the end, in 2033, of incentives for car production in the Northeast. .

Currently, the Toro pickup trucks, from Fiat, and Rampage, from Ram, are produced in Goiana, as well as three SUVs from the Jeep brand: Commander, Compass and Renegade. The group’s factories are, however, flexible to absorb other brands. In an interview with journalists before the announcement of the investments in Pernambuco, the president of Stellantis in South America, Emanuele Cappellano, stressed that the choices of where the group produces its launches are based on the production efficiency that each factory can offer the product.

As part of the largest investment plan ever announced by an automaker in Brazil, Stellantis will have four new production platforms, from which hybrid cars will be produced, and plans to launch 40 models in South America by 2030. The automaker has not yet revealed how it will distribute the R$ 17 billion remaining in the cycle between the two other Brazilian industrial units: in Betim (MG), where Fiat cars are produced, and Porto Real (RJ), factory of the French brand Citroën.

Just as I had already assured in an interview with Estadão/Broadcast At the beginning of the month, Cappellano assured that all factories will receive investments to produce new technologies.

In Argentina, the automaker will invest another R$2 billion starting next year. In the cycle that is being completed this year in the neighboring country, production began, with launch soon, of the Peugeot 2008, its first sports utility vehicle assembled in Argentina, the result of investments of more than US$ 270 million in the El Palomar factory, in province of Buenos Aires. “We held back this announcement for a while, waiting to see the political and economic scenario in Argentina, but it is time to launch this new product,” commented Cappellano.

Even though the production of purely electric cars, which are more expensive and whose charging infrastructure is still incipient in Brazil, is in the plans, Stellantis intends to calibrate the technologies that will be produced on the new platforms according to market demand. According to Cappellano, the best way to achieve emissions targets with the lowest impact on cost is to combine electric propellants with flex engines or engines powered exclusively by ethanol.

“It’s a technology that costs much less than an electric car […] The commitment we have is to look at technology, decarbonization, but also that it fits into the pockets of Brazilian families”, commented the president of Stellantis in South America.