Alexandre Rocha
São Paulo – Five businessmen from Santa Catarina state (southern Brazil), with the support of the Federation of Industries of the State of Santa Catarina (Fiesc), will begin production of the Brazilian car next year. The model, a 4-wheel drive jeep initially called "A4 project", will be produced exclusively with Brazilian parts, except for the transmission system that, it is considered, may be imported, produced by North-American Borg-Warner.
The father of the project is mechanical engineer Adolfo César dos Santos, Fiesc vice-president for construction, and one of the five businessmen behind the enterprise (he does not say who the others are).
"Santa Catarina has a very significant and developed auto parts industry, but does not yet have a carmaker", said Santos.
According to him, Fiesc has made a strategic decision in sponsoring the project exploring an important niche, the "off-road leisure" vehicles, at the same time developing a new market for the local auto parts industry, and giving "prominence" to the state productive capacity, attracting new industrial enterprises.
"The only component that we are considering importing is the transmission, all the rest will be national, and largely produced in the state", added the engineer.
The idea of producing a completely national car arose in 2001, when Santos himself developed a "concept project" starting from a crashed pickup. "The vehicle was made with no intention of industrialization, it was just a concept vehicle, and the off-road dynamics were of excellent result", he explained.
After Fiesc supported the idea, the project was handed to the same team of technicians who work for Mitsubishi do Brasil, said Santos. "We are now in the phase of building a prototype for testing and necessary approval", he stated.
Inspiration
The A4 lines were inspired on the Ford EX, a concept car presented by the North American carmaker at North American International Auto Show 2001.
But it was only inspired, as the EX is a two-seater buggy, useful for driving in sand dunes. The A4, in turn, is closer to the Willys jeep, which, although out of production for many years, is still very successful among Brazilian jeep lovers.
"We saw a great opportunity for the creation of a leisure jeep, a 4WD vehicle attempting to recreate the Willys ruggedness, but with modern mechanics and state-of-the-art technology to give it greater agility, comfort, and safety", stated Santos.
Characteristics
If the spirit is Willys, the body promises to be much more advanced than the old jeep, which, however rugged, was never recognized for comfort. According to Santos, the car will be for mixed use, both for going on trails and for driving in the city.
The A4 will sit four people, and the back seats may be removed for cargo transport. The car will be built on a tubular chassis developed by Wiest, a Santa Catarina based iron pipe and exhaust pipe factory.
The body will be produced by Tecno Fibras in the city of Joinville (180km away from Santa Catarina capital Florianópolis), and will be made partly in fiberglass, and partly in "deformable engineering plastics". The car will be 3.5 meters long.
Regarding the engine, Santos says that the supply is being negotiated with Volkswagen, Renault, and Tritec Motors, a joint venture between BMW and Chrysler, installed in Paraná state (also in the south of Brazil), which produces engines for famous imported models such as the Chrysler PT Cruiser and the Mini Cooper.
Despite not yet knowing who will supply the engine, Santos says that it will be four-cylinder, 2.0-liter gasoline engine, with 100 hp.
Within the mixed-use concept, Santos guarantees that the buyer will have access to "all his rights" in terms of optional equipment and comfort items. Apart from that, he stated, the car will have independent suspension system on all four wheels, making driving comfortable.
Production
Santos pointed out that, depending on technical aspects, commercial production of the car may begin in October 2004.
Before that, nonetheless, the businessmen and Fiesc are finalizing a "business plan" for capitalization of the enterprise. The idea is to establish a closed capital stock company and offer quotas to auto parts makers in Santa Catarina. "We have established a May next year deadline for this, and we will then decide on when to enter the market", he stated.
Santos added that, at the end of project development, the invested total should have been around US$ 2.09 million. "One of the characteristics of this project is low investment. We will not be producing parts, all the components will be supplied by existing companies", he stated.
The mounting line will be installed in a warehouse with an area of around 1,500 square meters in a location to be defined. "There are many installations with this profile available in the state", he guaranteed.
It is estimated that 20 cars will be produced every month, and they will be sold at prices varying from around US$ 10,500 to around US$ 15,700, depending on the optional accessories chosen. "We are operating with a conservative vision of production of 250 units per year", declared Santos. The idea is to sell just one basic option and offer the consumer 30 different kinds of accessories.
The executives are not thinking of creating a new dealer network. To Santos the car may well be sold by multi make stores and on the Internet. The main worry is technical service. They want to establish agreements with mechanics to establish a service network. "But as it is a product uniquely developed in the country, with parts used on other vehicles, spares should be easy to come across", evaluates Santos.
When the production line is in operation, the engineer calculates that it will generate 38 jobs. There are currently 13 people working on project development.
Export
The production of A4 has not even started, and Santos is already thinking about export. The company is making an accord with Cross Lander, which produces jeeps in Manaus (in the northern state of Amazonas) under a license from Romanian ARO (Auto Romania), for use of its export channels to the United States. "But our test export focus will be Mercosur", he pointed out.
