Chinese vehicles landing in Latin America

Photo: 2015 BYD e6 “Taxi”. By: harry_nl. Source: Flickr.

Several Chinese vehicle manufacturers have begun to see Latin America as an important place to establish new plants. In late 2022, Build Your Dreams (BYD) announced that it would be building three new factories in Sao Paulo, Brazil; two will produce chassis for buses, trucks, and automobiles in October 2024, and the third will process lithium and iron phosphate in January 2025. BYD seeks to impact the regional market in Latin America with the construction of these plants, “We will bring a full range of BYD’s passenger NEVs to 17 countries, such as Mexico, Chile and Colombia,” said Wang Chuanfu, president of the company.

In Argentina, the Chinese brand Chery will invest US$400 million in a plant to reach a production of 100,000 electric vehicles by 2030. This project also contemplates the manufacture of batteries in the Province of Jujuy, taking advantage of the country’s lithium reserves. This adds to the initiative of President Gustavo Petro in Colombia for a sustainable mobility project, related to the industrialization and manufacture of lithium batteries for electric vehicles with BYD. Thanks to such measures, several local companies are manufacturing or assembling small electric cars, such as Quantum in Bolivia, Luka in Guatemala, Zacua in Mexico, and Electric, Volt Motors, and Coradir in Argentina.

Top Headline:

Motor (2023). El desembarco chino en Latinoamérica.