Despite the slow pace of raids and construction, changes from Ford to BRD in the Camkery region are visible rapidly.When the Chinese Automker byd company announced a plan to build a large -scale factory in the Hardasacial city of Camacari in the Northeast Bahia state of Brazil, the locals saw a new beginning. After years of economic stagnation after the Ford Motor Company exiting the Ford Motor Company from the region in 2021, the global leaders in electric vehicles would bring back the well -paid jobs and a bright future.
The time seemed right. Brazil, the sixth largest auto market in the world, is seeing an increase in EV sales – and leading the byd charge. For CAMACARI, the deal promised to fill the economic vacuum left by the American company, which was once the largest employer in the city.
Then the plans left the track.
A December raid led by Brazilian officials rescued 163 Chinese citizens, stating that the site was working in “slavery -like” situations. A video of the Labor prosecutor’s office appeared dormitory with a lack of mattress and a lack of cooking facilities.
The company postponed the plan to launch its first production line in March and did not establish a new timeline, spreading apprehensions among the cammaker workers.
“When byd announced that it was coming here, it hoped in the US,” a metalworker and former Ford employee Luizmar Santana Perera said, who are working as a taxi driver. “We are waiting for this job opportunity, but so far, we have not seen it.”
After the raid, a spokesperson located at byd’s China headquarters denied the wrongdoing in a post on the Weibo social media site, saying that the allegations were an attempt to “smear” Chinese brands and China. The post also convicted “foreign forces” for allegations and criticized media reports.
In a statement aired in Brazil, the car manufacturer adopted a more consent tone. The company said that it “does not tolerate insult to Brazil’s law and human dignity” and canceled the contract with the Chinese manufacturing company Jinjiang, which brought workers.
In Brazil, enough rooms for BRD to develop EVS are rapidly spreading to Brazil, Latin America’s most populous nation. According to Brazil’s Association of Electric Vehicles, sales increased by 85 percent in 2024, with over 170,000 units, including fully electric and hybrid vehicles. About 7 percent of the new car sales in the country.
Development is done by byd. Seven out of 10 EVS sold in the country are from the brand, which also sells hybrids. In major cities such as Sao Paulo and Brasilia, imported byd cars and dealerships have become a common vision. In the Brazilian capital, it is the best-selling brand, whether it is EV or gas-operated.
Another Chinese EV manufacturer, GWM, also recently announced a plan to open a factory in Brazil, which after receiving a closed Mercedes-Benz facility in the industrial state of Sao Paulo.
Inroads in Brazil is in collaboration with the global development of the Inroads Company. The world’s leading EV company raised a record of US $ 107 billion in revenue in 2024 as the sale of electric and hybrid vehicles jumped 40 percent by crossing American rival Tesla.
This year, plans include the opening of its first car factory in Europe, currently under construction in Hungary.
According to Edalberto Maloff, National Secretary, Urban Environment and Environment, Brazil’s policies are selling and production.
In an interview with the Associated Press in Brasilia, Maluf cited the incentive enacted in 2024, which has a new air quality program with electric motors, tax deduction for low emission cars and nationwide monitoring and pollution reduction targets.
According to the non -profit climate watch, Brazil is one of the top 10 emissions of greenhouse gases, which contributes about 3 percent of global emissions. However, pollution from energy does not play a major role, as about half of the greenhouse gas emission comes from forest harvesting, mostly in Amazon, followed by agriculture. About 85 percent of the country’s electricity comes from renewable sources.
For Maluf, who worked in Beed Brazil for nearly nine years, the country is attractive to Chinese electric car manufacturers for the reasons for the presence of strong political relations between its market size and strong political relations between the two countries.
He said, “Brazilians with China do not have any geopolitical issues. If you ask, are you against China? Most people will not have a strong opinion about it,” he said.
He said, “In the US, however, they do, as it is part of the President’s rhetoric,” he said, “President Donald Trump’s constant comments about China,” “Rapping” on “Trade” to America.
It is not clear what is next to the byd factory.
Since the raid, byd has not allowed press visits inside its Camacari campus, citing concerns about trade secrets. It is not clear that byd is still on track to convert the former Ford site into its largest plant outside China by the end of 2026.
When AP journalists visited in March for several days, they saw only a few construction workers on the big site. And one day, while standing on the road adjacent to the premises, three byd guards, who laid hands on their gun, wrongly accused journalists of flying a drone inside the factory boundaries and demanded an identity.
After minutes, security guards on motorcycles honored and ordered journalists to stop the workers who shot journalists.
BYD said his security guards worked properly and refused to answer other questions about its operation in Brazil.
While the future of the factory is not clear, the raids and the presence of Chinese workers have attracted the attention of the labor unions.
Union president Julio Bonfim said, “The metalworkers will not tolerate the Chinese workers on the union production line. If this happens even at the beginning of the production, we will call for a stagnation of a work,” Julio Bonfim, Union President, AP said.
Bonfim said that there was no objection to the BYD appointing Chinese technicians and managers, but the factory floor should only be appointed to Brazilians. It was not clear whether BYD agreed.
Despite the slow pace of raids and construction, changes from Ford to BRD in the Camkery region are visible rapidly.
A three -decade -old dealership for the American brand that tributes the US state of American, now shares space with a BYD reseller, Mandarim.
A local hotel specifically began to distribute instructions to Chinese guests, asking them not to hang clothes washed in common areas. And a state MLA introduced a bill to change the name of Henry Ford Avenue of the city, where the plant is located, in Byd Avenue.
