After China, Russia and India, Renault-Nissan continues its conquest of the BRICs with Brazil, a market that the Alliance considers particularly promising. Japanese Nissan, 43.4% owned by Renault, will announce next Tuesday the construction of its first plant in the country. It would produce about 200,000 cars a year according to Nissan. This would be after a source quoted by Reuters car to make affordable electric cars. The manufacturer will invest $ 1.5 billion (1.1 billion euros). A figure not confirmed by Nissan, but the sum generally allocated to the creation of a new plant. The site could be located in the State of Rio de Janeiro. So far, Nissan produces its cars in the Renault plant in Curitiba, in Parana state.
Meanwhile, Renault will expand the capacity of its plant to better meet market demand.The investment could be around 200 million euros, according to estimates from an internal source to the manufacturer. The Curitiba plant produced 190,000 cars last year, about 30,000 Nissan vehicles.
Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault-Nissan, said in June, during the presentation of the new strategic plan of the Japanese, that Nissan would announce an investment in Brazil by the end of the year. He also promised two weeks ago, at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the major announcements about upcoming BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China).
Renault-Nissan, whose global market share stood at 10.3% in 2010, wants to catch up in Brazil, where the Alliance was granted last year that 5.9% of the market ( 4.8% for Renault and 1.1% for Nissan). The French manufacturer this year is 5.5% of market share and 7.4% in 2013, with 250,000 vehicles sold (against 160,000 in 2010).He estimates that Brazil, last year's third market, could become the second to the horizon behind France.
While the market is currently dominated by Fiat, Volkswagen and General Motors, which share almost two-thirds of sales, the French rival Renault, PSA Peugeot Citroen, also seeking to hold its own in the game PSA , had already announced in 2010 an investment of 530 million euros in Brazil, including the development of models tailored to the local market and increased capacity. The plant in Porto Real, in the State of Rio de Janeiro, should be capable of producing 220,000 cars from next year, against 150,000 now.
Higher taxes on imports
Renault-Nissan also want to be able to benefit fully from the growth of the Brazilian market, last year became the fourth in the world, with 3.3 million vehicles and an increase of 10.6%. In recent months, growth has slowed significantly, however, even if the first 8 months of the year, it still reached 7.5% over the same period in 2010. The country could fall back to fifth or sixth place this year, according to the local builders association.
Increasing their industrial presence in local, French manufacturers are also able to escape the measures recently implemented by the Brazilian government to tax heavily on imported cars and thereby encourage investment in the country.
Renault-Nissan was headed for emerging markets, giving priority to date every time to one of two manufacturers. In Russia, the Alliance is currently negotiating the takeover of Russian Avtovaz before the end of the year, Renault could hold 35%. In India, Renault will produce four new models by end 2012 in the Nissan plant in Chennai. Remains China, where the Japanese are strongly represented, but Renault is still absent. An absence that seems more than ever out of place when Nissan is growing in Brazil.