In Brazil, the problem that arose in the pandemic was aggravated by the conflict in Eastern Europe and the assembly of Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz cars is suspended

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the shortage of electronic materials intended for car production has been causing serious damage. To this day, for Brazil and for other countries, this problem is still recurrent. The scenario was even worse with the last conflict between the two countries in Eastern Europe, Russia and Ukraine, as there was a reduction in the supply of materials. Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz have already been negatively impacted.

According to an article written by Bruna Machado for the Capitalist portal, on Monday, April 18, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, two giant automakers, had to paralyze their activities in Brazil due to the lack of essential materials for production.

In this first half of 2022, there was still some expectations for the automobile sector regarding the supply of necessary parts in Brazil. However, with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine added to the simultaneous increase in cases of covid-19 in China, there was a change in plans.

About the stoppages of the major automakers

Thus, car production in Brazil has already begun to be suspended. Mercedes-Benz, which is new in electric SUV, had to decree collective vacations for all employees who work in the production of cars such as trucks, buses, cabins, etc. As a result, around 6 employees from the units in the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais will only return to work at the beginning of May.

In addition, Mercedes-Benz, which is in the high season for trucks in Brazil, had already suspended the functions of 600 workers for a period of 12 days, ending on March 25th. After that downtime, Mercedes-Benz suspended the work of another 600 employees, causing further interruptions in car manufacturing.

In turn, at the Volkswagen unit in Sao Bernardo do Campo, in the state of São Paulo, for example, there was a need to stop operations until the holiday on April 21, on Thursday, taking into account that there was a high number of cars with pending materials to be finished.

Linked to this, another Volkswagen plant – a brand that recall electric cars – also had to interrupt his activities. This time, due to the lack of adequacy of the production line, the automaker from Taubaté, also in the state of São Paulo, suspended its production.

With all this in mind, it is estimated that the manufacturing activities of the automobile sector in Brazil will only be regularized next year, 2023.

New Volkswagen electric car platform promises electric sedan with 700 km of range

Volkswagen continues to work on the development of its MEB electric car platform and one of the next innovations in this architecture announced this Wednesday afternoon (13) will be a medium-sized electric sedan, the first of the brand, which will serve as a successor to the current Passat, however without emitting any pollutants and which promises to make a big leap in terms of autonomy. Until then, Volkswagen's platform has already provided the basis for ID line models such as ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, ID.6 and ID. Buzz, however, the future electric sedan promises to go one step further.
Known as Volkswagen Aero B, the electric car did not have much technical data released by the German automaker, however during the last earnings conference the company released some important data about the electric sedan. To know more, read the full article here at this link.