Thomas Schäfer sees the Brazilian ethanol flex hybrid as a temporary solution
By Alzira Rodrigues | 07/04/23 | Translated by Jorge Meditsch
With an ongoing R$ 7 billion investment plan up to 2026, Volkswagen South America already debates what should come after it and the investments to be made from 2027 through 2030. Meetings about this are part of the visit schedule of the brand’s global CEO, Thomas Schäfer, who is also participating in the celebration of VW’s 70 years in the country, as the manufacturer also commemorates the fourth consecutive year of profits in local operations.
In an interview with a group of journalists before the company’s five-thousand guests party Monday night (7/3), Schäfer talked about electrification, admitting the ethanol flex hybrid is a way to be followed in Brazil, but let it clear it is a transitory solution.
“There is no scale potential”, he said about ethanol. “Globally, we will go toward battery vehicles”. Also in the press conference, Alexander Seitz, Volkswagen South America’s president, said the brand platforms come from the headquarters, “but there is freedom to create cars for the Brazilian taste”.
Volkswagen does not reveal when it will launch the ethanol flex hybrid, but the company’s president in Brazil, Ciro Possobom, said in the interview that the ´project is in its final phase.
About local production of 100% electric vehicles, he explained that the strategy is to import them initially to evolve in supplying from the Brazilian supplier chain.
“Those are medium to long-term plans”, said the executive, informing that the brand’s global CEO visit to Brazil aimed, among other reasons, to discuss actions for this decade’s second half.
Asked if the company keeps profitable even with the current market problems that took Volkswagen to halt production last week in two plants, Possobom ensured that this is the fourth consecutive year the manufacturer has had a positive performance.
He said July will still be a good sales month for the sector, as the dealers already have in stock products purchased from the manufacturers with the “affordable car” program discounts.
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