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39 AutoData | April 2018 received and from which the combined counterparts did not occur. The most recent chapter of the story occurred in December last year: JacMotors announced that the factorywill be in Goiás, investing R$ 200 million to produce two SUVs, one of them the T40, within 24 mon- ths. The factory will have, or would have, “eight steps of productive process already in the first year of activities”, according to company statement released at the time. In the same informative Jac stated that the city of Goiás that would receive the plant was not yet chosen “despite great options”. But the protocol of intent signed byHabib and the governor of Goiás pointed to Itumbiara as the headquarters of the unit, more specifically area that had been used by HPE, former MMC, to produce the Suzuki Jimny utility, transferred in 2015 to the company’s unit in Catalão , in the same Goiás. The municipality of Itumbiara published press release celebrating the “arrival of Jac Motors”. BAHIA CHARGES IT The businessman and the city council of Itumbiara were searched by AutoData to talk about the subject, but did not res- pond to the requests of the report. A source close to the talks said Habib is still talking to HPE about talks involving a possible space lease. There is, therefore, no hammer beaten definitively as to the choice of a place to host the factory. And so it is obvious, much less works or installation of machinery of any kind. The reaction from Bahia to Jac’s an- nouncement in Goias was immediate. In an interviewwith local newspaper ATarde, the governor of Bahia said that he would send a statement to the Chinese gover- nment stating that his partner in Brazil is “inidôneo” and that he caused financial losses to the State. In exchange for building the plant in Camaçari, Jac Motors received, in addition to its own land and its basic infrastructure works such as earthmoving, exemptions from the ICMS. The local government pro- Jac Motors: factory effect. Sales of 2017 were only 10% of those of 2011, year of debut *First two months. Calculation on the first two months of 2017. In units. Source: Abeifa 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018* 38 217 7 248 15 980 8 416 5 026 2 727 3 823 624 +23 %* +40 % -46 % -40 % -47 % +120 % -81 %