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17 AutoData | December 2018 Márcio Stéfani, publisher of AutoData, and Pablo Di Si L ast year, Brazil beat its vehicle exports record: 766 thousand vehicles with a Made in Brazil stamp, a strong growth of 47% compared to 2016. The best register so far belonged to 2005, with 724 thousand. This scenario was general in the industry, but one company stood out in particular: Volkswagen, which raised its own exports, in the same comparison, by 52%, to 163 thousand units compared to 107 thousand in 2016. According to Pablo Di Si, president and CEO VW for South America and Brazil, “Volkswagen was the exports engine of the Brazilian automotive industry. Our strong performance is the result of the operations regionalization strategy in South America, Central America and the Caribbean: with a dedicated attention to these markets, we have been able to offer vehicles that meet their specific needs.” Sales abroad contributed with R$ 5.5 billion of Volkswagen do Brasil’s total revenues of R$ 16.6 billion in 2017. This value was increased by the export of the EA211 family engines to VW plants in Argentina and Mexico and blocks, cylinder heads and crankshafts produced to European units. All are produced in the São Carlos unit, in the countryside of São Paulo. In March, Volkswagen announced the triumph of a new contract for components export: 5 thousand crankshafts for the Chemnitz factory in Germany, version 1.0 TSI. The same unit will receive, in all, 90 thousand engine blocks to equip the 1.0 engines of the European models Polo and Up!. But the great highlight is the export of 1.4 TSi complete engines to the factory in Puebla, Mexico, to equip the models Jetta, Golf and Golf Variant. The contract runs until 2020 and has already been raised from 250 thousand units to 300 thousand. In October, VW celebrated the production of the first 100 thousand engines of this contract in São Carlos. These predicates assured the manufacturer the victory in the AutoData Exporter 2018 category. The nomination granted VW’s participation in the Company of the Year dispute, which all the winners of the award’s categories compete, decided by a board of notables in the automotive sector. And sure enough: a new achievement and another trophy for the Volkswagen gallery “VW is the engine of the Brazilian automotive exports. Our strong performance is the result of the strategy of operations regionalization.” Pablo Di Si, president and CEO VW for South America