By George Guimarães | 05/04/23 | Translated by Jorge Meditsch
The plant of Caoa Montadora completes 16 years of operation this month. Inaugurated in 2007, the fruit of an initial investment of R$ 1.2 billion, the factory in Anápolis, GO, can assemble up to 150 thousand Hyundai and Chery vehicles a year, between automobiles, SUVs and light trucks.
Nevertheless, the consolidated production pace is far from this. According to Anfavea, up to December 2022 the Goiás plant produced 414 thousand vehicles, an average of nearly 26 thousand yearly units. The record production was in 2021, when 46.7 vehicles were assembled.
From the commercial perspective, the 16th-anniversary celebration doesn’t include much good news for the group created by Carlos Alberto de Oliveira Andrade, who died in 2021 and has been commanded by his son since last December.
Coincidently or not, experienced executives have left the company in this short six-month period, such as Márcio Alfonso, the manufacturer’s president, and Mauro Correia, the group’s CEO. The CAOA group also includes the dealer network and the importers of Subaru and Hyundai vehicles.
New Tucson and HR “vanished”
Sales of the vehicles made in Anápolis slumped in the first four months of 2023. Deliveries of Hyundai models, the New Tucson SUV and the HR and HD80 trucks almost ceased. According to Fenabrave, only five units of the light truck HR, the Goiás plant’s first model, were licensed in the first third of the year, with 121 of the HD80 delivered.
About the New Tucson, the mystery is even greater. The model has become rare in the dealerships since last year, and the company said it was an occasional problem and the low offer was caused by the “need of updating due to the legislation change (Proconve)”.
The problem should have been solved by March with the arrival of the aesthetically and mechanically modernized SUV. But, in the last two months, deliveries weren’t enough even to position it among the 40 bestselling SUVs listed by Fenabrave.
A specialized consultant company says deliveries were around only sixty, all units made last year or before.
Asked by AutoIndústria, three dealerships assured they had not received the updated Tucson and don’t have a perspective for it. One of them said to be waiting for the return of the HR – imported – like other models promised by Caoa, as the Kona crossover.
In March, the manufacturer showed the 4×4 version of the light truck without many technical details or price, saying it would arrive “in the next few weeks”.
The Caoa Chery brand, the group’s greatest bet in the last years, with its nationalized sport-utilities, has also suffered beyond reasonable in 2023.
Its deliveries were limited to 5,866 units of the SUVs Tiggo 5X, Tiggo 7, and Tiggo 8, a 55% fall compared to the first four months of 2023 and 2022, when the brand sold 12.9 thousand vehicles. All in a passenger car market that has advanced by more than 13%.
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