FRANKFURT, Sept 7 (Reuters) – German carmaker Daimler
plans to build a new Mercedes factory in Brazil to
benefit from growing demand for compact cars in the country, its
chief executive told a German newspaper.
Stuttgarter Zeitung cited the luxury carmaker’s CEO Dieter
Zetsche as saying Daimler would choose this year between two or
three locations it had shortlisted for the plant in Brazil.
He told the daily’s Saturday edition it would not have been
profitable to export compact cars to Brazil.
“With the new compact class we have cars on offer that are
attractive and can be produced at low costs, making them a good
fit for this market,” Zetsche said.
“It was simply a question of either producing in Brazil or
not to be present there at all in this segment. Our decision is:
We want to take part.”
Zetsche did not specify the model to be built there. Daimler
defines its compact class as comprising the A-class and B-class
as well as GLA and CLA models.
Daimler said last month it was considering such a move but
had made no decision yet.
Luxury carmakers are flocking to Brazil in an attempt to
exploit growing demand. Brazil’s government complicated their
plans, however, with an effort to protect local jobs by
increasing a tax on foreign-made cars last year.
Brazil’s auto industry lobby group on Thursday raised its
2013 production outlook helped by exports, mainly to the United
States.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Anthony Barker)
