To shrink its stock, VW suspends car imports from Brazil

The June 0km plan launched three months ago by the Government, accompanied by the Automotive Factory Association (ADEFA), had changed the mood of the terminals. Sales had "reactivated" thanks to discounts and consumers began to return to dealers.

But the election result of the PASO again brought uncertainty to the market, and sales stopped abruptly. In addition, they followed the price hikes of the cars, product of the devaluation, and moved away from the pockets.

In this context, the brands, which hoped to rebound in the last months of the year, were cornered again, and plans to liquidate stock were located in the eye of the storm, anticipating that it would be very difficult to achieve. That is why urgent decisions had to be made, such as lowering production and cutting imports.

In the case of Volkswagen, which is in the process of changes in its Pacheco plant, it was decided to suspend imports from Brazil in order to reduce the stock of units towards the end of the year.

This was confirmed by Pablo Di Si, CEO of Volkswagen America, at the Frankfurt International Motor Show, where the German presented its new brand image.

The objective is to reduce most of the stock they have in the terminal. They also want to avoid that, due to the need to achieve objectives, large bonuses have to be applied when the dollar rises and reduced profitability.

The measure affects the Taubaté plant, where the Gol is manufactured, although it also impacts the terminals of Curitiba (assembles the T-Cross) and Anchieta (Polo and Virtus).

For the brand, it is best to wait for 2020 with an inventory as low as possible, taking into account that the market shrunk almost 50%. "That creates a great liquidity problem, because the size of the investments is the same, but the cash generation is half," he told La Voz.

However, he ruled out that the projects being executed can be stopped, both in Pacheco and in the Cordoba gearbox factory. On the latter, he considered it an "island", because 97% of what it produces goes abroad and, therefore, the national crisis almost does not generate an impact.

Meanwhile, at the local level, prices suffered in September an adjustment ranging from 5% to 9.1%, and will continue to accommodate to recover what was lost with the devaluation.