Renault opened the Ayrton Senna complex in Sao Jose dos Pinhais, a city bordering Curitiba in Parana, in December 1998. The Scenic was the first car built there, followed by the Clio in 1999 and an engine factory the same year. It is the group’s main industrial base in South America and the plant that supplies most of Renault’s range in the region, and cumulative production passed four million vehicles in 2024.
The campus holds two vehicle plants, one for passenger cars and one for light commercial vehicles, alongside an engine factory and an aluminium injection unit, and Renault puts the workforce at about 5,000. Current output covers the Kwid, Logan, Stepway, Kardian, Duster and Oroch, plus the Master van, for the domestic market and for export within South America.
The site is also where Renault’s partnership with Geely becomes physical. Geely holds a minority stake in Renault do Brasil and sells its cars through the Renault dealer network in the country, and in November 2025 the two companies confirmed that two Geely models, the electric EX2 hatchback and the EX5 EM-i hybrid, will be built at Sao Jose dos Pinhais from the end of 2026. Both use Geely’s GEA architecture, which no Renault-badged car on the site shares.
