Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus celebrates the 25 years of its plant located in Resende, in the South of Rio de Janeiro. With an initial investment of US$ 250 million, the assembler has already quintupled the resources applied to the development of its operations, which have had a qualitative leap since its installation in the city. Today the brand offers the market a complete line of trucks and buses, and celebrates the good acceptance of the e-Delivery, the first electric truck developed and produced in Brazil.
"Over 25 years, our plant has become a reference with the unprecedented Modular Consortium and the e-Consórcio, besides producing a series of vehicles that have become true transport icons. Today we occupy a manufacturing complex of 1 million square meters with 4,500 employees, conquering the Brazilian and international markets. The secret to our brand's success is based on a solid pillar: the customer always comes first," says Roberto Cortes, president and CEO of Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus.
After building its headquarters in 1996, VWCO created outstanding product families, such as the Series 2000, the Constellation, two generations of the Delivery and the Meteor, as well as the first rear-engine VW bus chassis and the introduction of the MAN brand in the country. Also part of these developments are the Euro 3 and 5 lines, the expansion of production capacity and expansion into international markets.
Today the assembler's line for cargo transport ranges from trucks of 3.5 to 125 tons of total gross weight. VWCO has also developed a complete line for passenger transport, with Volksbus chassis for the rural, urban, charter, road and school bus markets. Added to this are recent investments in electric mobility.
Achievements
The plant celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary in the same year that the Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus brand celebrates its 40th anniversary. In February 1981, Brazil and the world got to know the unprecedented Volkswagen Caminhões, a brand that has been making history and leading the market with its trucks and buses tailored to customers.
Created together with the Resende plant, the Modular Consortium is VWCO's production model in which the commercial vehicle manufacturer delegates assembly responsibility in its plant to eight suppliers there called partners. This innovation helped the automaker to focus on the development and quality control of its products. The arrival of the Consortium in Resende 25 years ago laid the foundations for the automotive hub in South Rio de Janeiro, today one of the largest in Brazil.
VW Caminhões e Ônibus also took a big step towards making electric mobility feasible for the production of the first Brazilian electric trucks with the creation of the unprecedented e-Consortium, and in July it officially started sales at authorized dealers of the first 100% electric truck, the new VW e-Delivery.
In addition to product development with its Engineering also located in Resende, the company takes care of quality tests that contemplate safety and compliance with the Volkswagen Group's worldwide standards. A network of dealers and importers with about 350 points of sale spread over two continents distributes the products made in Resende.