Adalberto Maluf, director of marketing and sustainability for BYD’s Brazilian subsidiary, said BYD is in talks with the Brazilian state government of Bahia about acquiring the plant that Ford will stop operating in January 2021.
Maluf said the state government still has issues to resolve and has yet to develop a national electric vehicle travel plan and minimum sales targets to justify the decision to nationalize production.
BYD unveiled two SUV models to the Brazilian market on Wednesday, and BYD will begin selling the two new electric vehicles in Brazil in November. Stella Li, president of BYD Americas, said Brazil has favorable political and environmental developments and is the largest automotive market in Latin America.
“I believe this is the right time for us to invest politically and environmentally to build these new technologies in Brazil.”
Maluf said at the Nov. 16 launch event in São Paulo that BYD is investing about R$2.5 billion in the VLT project in Bahia.
The BYD Song and Yuan will be sold as imports until this new plant goes into production. This will be a challenge, he said, so the company needs a government that is “open-minded to technological development.
