As Fiat Automòveis celebrates 30 years of building vehicles in Brazil, it has posted a record sales month in June and dominates the new car market for the first six months of this year. Fiat Automòveis in fact shifted 31,165 new vehicles during June which brings the half-year production total to 201,120 units.

The sales figures, released by the Brazilian Motor Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, reveal that GM were in second place in terms of sales to Fiat last month, with 29,608 vehicles sold, while VW were in third place after registering 27,656 units. Over the first half year Fiat has topped the passenger car and light commercial vehicle segments in Brazil with both the popular Palio (with 63,914 sales) and the cost-effective, entry-level Mille (57,327 units) exceeding expectations.

These latest sales successes come just as Fiat Automòveis celebrates 30 years of assembling cars in the country. The huge facility at Betim in the Minas Gerais state was inaugurated on 9th July 1976 and in the intervening three decades Brazil has become the most important operations base for Fiat Auto outside Italy, last year in fact 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 Betim facility can comfortably produce 500,000 vehicles per year, 2 every second, and employs 16,000 staff.
 

"We have a great history to count on and a future at the front to construct," said the President of Fiat Automòveis C. Belini. "Arriving now at the 30 year mark, Fiat has strengthened its position in order to construct a better future, for both its business and for society, to build the confidence of its partners - customers, concessionaires, teams, shareholders and society."

Fiat confirmed the solidity of the business and its strategic future as part of the group by recently announcing a R$ 2.5 billion 3-year investment programme, with R$ 900 million of this being spent this year. Innovative new products, "that the consumers prefer to buy and have pride to possess", according to C. Belini, are being developed. Fiat Automòveis is also targeting the development of new vehicles offer increased efficiency and economy, and that are environmentally-sustainable. Recent developments include the new TetraFuel Siena, introduced to the market last month, which can blend four different fuel mixes and follows in the footsteps of the successful FlexFuel (dual fuel) system. Fiat Automòveis and the Turin-based Centro Ricerche Fiat also last month presented Fiat's latest commitment to sustainable motoring, the zero-emission Palio Elétrico prototype.