Chinese automaker BYD has unveiled a new engine for its plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) that run on both gasoline and ethanol — one of Brazil's most commonly used fuels — during the inauguration of its new factory in the country.
The engine, developed over two years through a R100mn ($18.6mn) investment and a collaboration between Brazilian and Chinese scientists, will debut in the Song Pro, BYD's best-selling PHEV in Brazil and a direct competitor to the Jeep Compass.
The model will be the first to feature the new engine once its local assembly begins. The firm will debut 30 fully functional units at the UN Cop 30 climate summit, to be held in Brazil's northern Para state, in November.
BYD's chief executive Wang Chuanfu unveiled the engine on 9 October at BYD's Brazil factory inauguration event. The firm revamped a decommissioned Ford plant in Camacari, in northeastern Bahia state.
This is the first ever flex-fuel — meaning that it can run on gasoline and ethanol at the owner's discretion — plug-in hybrid powertrain in the world and will likely be exclusive to the Brazilian market, BYD said. Data from Brazilian gas distributors' association Abegás show that 85pc of cars in Brazil are flex-fuel.
BYD has also committed to creating a test center to better adapt its vehicles to the Brazilian market, in addition to a research and development facility to study "green energy" innovations.
The firm, which has been manufacturing and selling buses in Brazil since 2008, wants to play a central role in Camacari's emergence as "a renewable energy innovation hub in South America," Wang said during the inauguration event.
Production
BYD is aiming to produce 600,000 cars/yr in its Camacari factory, Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said at the plant's inauguration event.
The firm officially inaugurated its R5.5bn factory in Brazil three years after it began selling cars in the country. The plant will become the second largest car factory in the country.
It will initially produce 150,000 vehicles/yr, with a planned expansion to 300,000 cars/yr, but Lula confirmed that the goal is to reach 600,000 cars/yr by 2031, in addition to building auto parts and battery-making facilities all in the same site. Only Stellantis' Betim plant, in southeastern Minas Gerais state, would be larger, at 650,000 units/yr.
Lula said that the factory will serve as an export hub for BYD's vehicles throughout Latin America, and added that he wants an even further expansion.
"Brazil wants to sell Brazilian-made BYD cars in the African continent, from South Africa to Cape Verde," Lula said, in a rare public nod to BYD.
BYD's plant will assemble semi-knocked down vehicles imported from China for at least 12 months, while it develops a local network of auto parts. After that, it will begin full-scale vehicle manufacturing in Brazil, according to Alexandre Baldy, BYD's vice-president for Brazil.
Semi-knocked down vehicles are partially welded, painted and pre-manufactured overseas.
The factory has been gearing up to start car assembly since July, with 250 employees — a figure that will grow to 2,000 in November and to 20,000 when the plant is fully operational, Lula said.
BYD sold over 100,000 vehicles this year in Brazil so far, and was the seventh best-selling brand in the country on September, ahead of Honda, Renault and Nissan. It only markets plug-in EVs in Brazil, such as PHEVs and full EVs.
