BYD is considering buying a former Ford plant in Brazil

CTOnews.com, Nov. 18, Bloomberg reported that Adalberto Maluf, director of marketing and sustainability at BYD's Brazilian subsidiary, said BYD was in talks with the Brazilian state government of Bahia to buy a plant that Ford ceased operating in January 2021.

Maluf said the state government still faces problems to be solved and needs to develop a national electric vehicle travel plan and a minimum sales target to justify the decision to nationalize production.

BYD unveiled two SUV models for the Brazilian market on Wednesday. CTOnews.com has learned that BYD will start selling the two new electric cars in Brazil in November. Stella Li, president of BYD America, believes that Brazil has favorable political and environmental development, and that Brazil is the largest car market in Latin America.

"I believe now is the right time for us to invest in politics and the environment to build these new technologies in Brazil."

At a launch event in Sao Paulo on November 16, Maluf said that BYD had invested about 2.5 billion reais in the VLT project in Bahia state.

BYD Song and Yuan will sell it on an imported basis before the new plant goes into production. It will be a challenge, he says, so the company needs a government that is "open to technological development".