What’s new: China’s best-selling electric-vehicle (EV) maker, BYD Co. Ltd. (002594.SZ), plans to increase the number of franchise dealerships in Brazil to 100 by the end of next year, as it further expands into Latin America, the automaker said in a call with investors.
The Shenzhen-listed automaker is already working with a handful of companies that run car dealerships in Brazil to sell its Han EV series, including GNC, Servopa SA and BCLV Comercio de Veiculos SA, which does business as Eurobike, according to the note on the meeting, which took place Friday.
“This marks a further expansion of BYD’s passenger car presence in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said the company in a note which added that it had a footprint in Colombia, Uruguay, Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.
BYD plans to sell EVs in 45 major Brazilian cities by the end of this year, but didn’t specify which ones in the note.
Background: BYD held on to its title as the best-selling EV-maker in China in the first quarter of 2022, reporting sales that grew fivefold from the previous year to 282,686 vehicles. Tesla Inc., the second-best seller in the country, sold 108,300 vehicles, according to figures from the China Passenger Car Association, an industry group.
BYD took China’s auto sales crown in 2021, when it sold 584,020 vehicles, according to the association. In April, the company said it was no longer producing vehicles that run on fossil fuels and would only make EVs going forward.
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Contact reporter Manyun Zou (manyunzou@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
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