VW Truck & Bus to Invest €420 Million in Brazil

Volkswagen AG's truck and bus business plans to invest about €420 million ($448 million) over the next five years to update its truck plant and commercial vehicle product lineup in Brazil.

VW says the investment will be the unit’s largest ever in Brazil, where the brand has dominated the truck market for the past 13 years. The program is part of a €3.6 billion spending plan for Brazil VW announced in early 2014.

The company makes the VW Volksbus large city bus and long-haul VW Constellation and MAN TGX commercial trucks at its 20-year-old factory in Resende. VW operates four other assembly plants in Brazil, where it controls about 22% of the passenger car market.

Brazil’s economy has been shrinking for three years. But VW Truck & Bus CEO Andreas Renschler says the company is investing because it is confident the country's markets will recover in the next few years.