With a huge stand, bursting with stylish models, Fiat Automòveis is at the 24th Salão Internacional do Automóvel in São Paulo this week, demonstrating its Brazilian market-leading status in no uncertain terms. All this is taking place as Fiat Automòveis celebrates 30 years of assembling cars in the country. The huge facility at Betim in the Minas Gerais state was in fact inaugurated on 9th July 1976 and during the intervening three decades Brazil has become the most important operations base for Fiat Auto outside Italy, last year accounting for 29.4 percent of the carmaker's global production totals. More than 9 million vehicles have been assembled at Betim in the last 30 years, with around 30 percent being destined for export. The sprawling facility can comfortably produce 500,000 vehicles per year, 2 every second, and it employs 16,000 staff.

For the year-to-date (to the end of September) Fiat Automòveis have now sold 326,978 vehicles on the Brazil market, with General Motors being pushed in second place (291,451 units) and VW very close behind in third (288,377 units). Ford are fourth (146,313 units) while Honda (48,481 units) are fifth, just 21 vehicles ahead of sixth placed Toyota. Backing all this all up comes a R$2.5 billion 3-year investment programme which will see a raft of new model set to roll out of the Betim plant, including the new C-segment Fiat Linea saloon, which is due to commence production in just over a year's time.

The showpiece attraction on the large stand is the new FCC Adventure, a dramatically-styled 'off-road' concept showcar which aims to demonstrate the ability of Fiat Automòveis to develop its own innovative and practical solutions to the local market's requirements. The FCC Adventure is situated on a large round dais, one of two that are at the centre of the stand. The second prominent dais is occupied by the Fiat Croma, the 'estate' car has been especially flown into Brazil for the Salão Internacional do Automóvel, to allow Fiat to test local market reaction to this car at what is South America's biggest motor show.

The FCC Adventure also adds a 'halo' effect to the 'Adventure' range of Fiat models, cars designed to be as equally at home off the road as on it. The current Adventure range - which comprises of the Palio Weekend, Doblò and Strada models - has been joined at the show by a fourth member of the six year old 'family', the brand new Idea Adventure. Based on the Idea 'mini MPV', the Idea Adventure is making its motor show debut, just two months after it was unveiled. A bright red example and another in grey, both with distinctive grey plastic panels are on show.
 

The Fiat Palio hatchback, a member of the 'Word Car' family, is also a major player on Fiat's stand. Last month - for the first time since it was launched on the Brazilian market ten years ago - the Fiat Palio hatchback topped its market segment in terms of unit sales. The Palio sold 14,635 units in September, comfortably beating the traditional sector leader, the VW Gol, which shifted 14,093 units. In third place last month was the Chevrolet Celta, with 12,868 units sold. The Palio will receive a mild facelift before the end of the year to bring its styling closer to that of the Perla, a 'World Car' derivative recently launched especially for the Chinese market.

To commemorate Fiat's 30th anniversary of building cars in Brazil this year a special edition of the Palio, carrying '30 anos' decals and featuring higher equipment specification levels, has been created. Also on the stand is the Palio 1.8R, an attractive sporty version launched at the start of the year, targeted at the younger and more adventurous car buyer. Adding to the Palio's Brazilian success story is the fact that it celebrated the production of the 2 millionth example at Betim in May.

Another space of close focus on the Fiat stand is in the area of technology, with Fiat Automòveis very keen to showcase their burgeoning know-how. This zone includes the dual-fuel 'Flexfuel' engine option (which allows gasoline and alcohol to be mixed or used in pure form) as well as the brand new 'TetraFuel' option which extends this thinking even further. Also on show is the Palio Elétrico, a totally 'zero emission' vehicle. The other models on show include the Marea, which will be superseded by the new Linea next year, and the Stilo, the line of at the show including an M.Schumacher version which is being presented in 'Model Year 2006' format.

by Claudio Perlini