By George Guimarães | 4/4/23 | Translated by Jorge Meditsch
In a few days, Stellantis’s plant in Goiana, PE, will celebrate 1.5 million vehicles produced since opening in April 2015. Fruit of a R$ 7 billion investment made by FCA, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (now part of Stellantis), in less than eight years the plant became one of the country’s largest automobile and light commercial vehicles producers and changed the socioeconomic profile of the region and the state of Pernambuco.
To reach the almost 190 thousand vehicles yearly average, Goiana used production technologies and efficient logistics, especially during the periods most affected by difficulties caused by the Covid pandemic and components shortage.
Goiana took about five years to reach one million vehicles produced in May 2021, and is reaching 1.5 million in just two years more.
An important factor for the sustainability of the assembly lines was the well-oiled and growing supply park in the region. In the Goiana complex itself, there are sixteen supplying facilities, and 18 other companies also are in Pernambuco, a contingent Stellantis wants to be expanded to 15 more suppliers up to 2025.
The volume achieved in less than eight years at Goiana’s Stellantis Automotive Pole stands out for the upper consumer segment and high-price range vehicles.
Three are Jeep SUVs – the pioneer Renegade, the medium Compass and the top-of-range Commander, besides various versions of the Toro pickup. Goiana produces both for the internal market and exportation to various Latin American countries, such as Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay.
The first car to leave the assembly line in Pernambuco was the Renegade. In the following year, 2016, the Toro and the Compass arrived at the dealers.
The most recent, the Commander, was presented in the second half of 2021. Nonetheless, after more than 41 thousand units delivered to customers until last month, a Commander was the millionth Jeep made in Goiana. The North American brand corresponds to two-thirds of the plant’s production to date.
The Renegade is the absolute leader among the Jeeps in units produced. Almost 539 thousand were assembled from 2015 until the end of March. One in three vehicles made in Pernambuco until now was a Renegade.
It is already trailed closely by the Compass that, with more than 420 thousand units manufactured, was Brazil’s best-selling SUV in 2017 and 2018 and, practically since its launch, has led the medium SUV segment. In the 2023 first quarter, it was once more ahead of all SUVs in the market, with more than 15.5 thousand units sold.
A RAM made in Pernambuco
The only Fiat made in Goiana, the Toro also leads its segment and is close to taking from the Renegade the title of Pernambuco’s most produced vehicle. It surpassed 450 thousand units in October 2022 and, after five months more, is approaching 500 thousand units, which should be reached in the next few weeks. In the first three months this year, Toro registered more than 12 thousand deliveries.
Nevertheless, this two-thirds-one-third Jeep advantage over Fiat in Goiana should change shortly.
Stellantis will introduce one more brand in the plant. In the next months, the first national RAM pickup, assembled on the same platform as the local Jeep and Fiat products, should arrive. Smaller than the imported RAMs, the new vehicle, according to Auto Segredos website, already has a name chosen: Rampage.
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