Urban transport company 99 is accelerating a strategy to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles in its fleet in Brazil and has plans to reach more than 300 cars with this engine by the end of the year.
The company, Uber’s biggest rival in Brazil and controlled by Chinese DiDi Chuxing, has agreed a partnership with the also Chinese BYD to start tests starting this week in the city of São Paulo with an electric car of the brand developed, according to the companies, specifically for use by application drivers.
BYD is the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world in unit sales and an important partner of DiDi in China, which already has more than 1 million electric and hybrid vehicles registered on its platform in the Asian country, said Thiago Hipólito, director of innovation. of 99.
“We want to replicate this in Brazil. What we have seen is that the massive adoption of the electric car in China has passed through the application driver and this has generated a natural demand for infrastructure” to support these vehicles, such as battery charging stations,” said Hipólito. .
99, whose DriverLAB innovation unit has an investment budget this year of BRL 100 million and BRL 250 million over the next three years, aims to get more drivers for its platform and the electric car is precisely one of the ways for the company to seek get this.
According to the company, which is already testing other cars from the Sino-Brazilian Caoa Chery, the BYD vehicle to be tested in São Paulo, D1, has a range of 370 kilometers and features such as expanded passenger space. As it is electric, it can generate cost savings to drivers of around 80%, including fuel and maintenance, said the executive.
The intention, said Hipólito, is not to buy electric cars from automakers to put on the platform, but to facilitate their implementation via rental by drivers from rental companies, given the high price of these models in the country. The D1, for example, has a retail price of around 270,000 reais, the automaker said.
In April, 99 launched a group called Aliança pela Mobilidade Sustentável, which, in addition to BYD and Caoa Chery, brings together the car rental companies Movida and Unidas, the latter acquired by Localiza, as well as the gas station networks Ipiranga and Raízen. , among other companies.
The goal is to reach more than 300 electric cars by the end of the year, in addition to the current 180 battery-powered and hybrid cars on the platform, through the Alliance, said the director of innovation.
The creation of the group came with accelerated growth in sales of electric and hybrid vehicles in Brazil. In June, 1,087 electric cars were sold in the country, almost double the number sold in May. The hybrids had sales of almost 3,000 units, according to data from the Anfavea automakers association. The share of the electric/hybrid segment in total sales in the first half was 2.4%, compared to 1.8% in the whole of last year.
Unit sales numbers are low largely because of the high price of electric and hybrid vehicles in the country and the lack of manufacturers. Currently, only Toyota and Caoa Chery produce hybrid cars in Brazil, while electric cars are imported.
“The central point (of the Alliance) is to bring partners to solve problems jointly. The objective now is to bring the cars from China”, said the innovation director of 99, when asked if BYD vehicles could be produced in Brazil. as a way to lower the cost.
BOLD PLANS
Asked about this, BYD, which has been manufacturing electric buses in the interior of São Paulo since 2015, said in a statement that it has “bold plans” for the Brazilian market and that it is part of its goals “to eventually also produce cars in the country.”
“The idea is to launch two plug-in hybrid models from September, vehicles that should bring sales volume (in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 units per year) for the company to justify and start thinking about investments for local production” , said the Chinese automaker.
On the 99 side, the company has a public commitment to have 10,000 electric cars registered on its platform by 2025. Currently, the company has more than 750,000 monthly active drivers in Brazil to serve more than 20 million users.
The impacts of the pandemic and the economic crisis accelerated these numbers, said Hipólito, and that’s why 99’s focus is on reducing drivers’ operating costs, as fuel inflation has acted as a brake on supply by squeezing drivers’ earnings.
On this front, said Hipólito, in addition to tests with electric cars, 99 has encouraged drivers to purchase CNG systems (natural gas for vehicles), cheaper than gasoline and ethanol. The CNG engine solution, according to the executive, “is practically exclusive to Brazil” and has attracted DiDi’s attention in China.
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