
Chinese Cars, Brazil Style
For more than a century, cars, powered by gasoline, have been central to American power in the world. But the race to build the cars of the future is beginning to turn to China's favor. Those cars are powered by batteries.
It's part of one of the most consequential shifts happening in the world today. So I went to Brazil earlier this year to find out more.
Why Brazil? Because Brazil is Latin America's largest economy, and the world's sixth largest car market. Brazilians love cars and for many years, American automakers made cars in Brazil. Ford once built a Model T in its Brazilian factory. European car companies set up factories too, followed later by Japanese and Korean brands. And the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil's president, wants to bring down climate emissions from its transportation sector.
Over the last few years, Chinese carmakers had been shipping lots of cars to Brazil. They are cheaper than many American and European models, they drive well and they are popular with Brazilians.
All of that alarmed legacy carmakers in Brazil and, in turn, the Brazilian government. The government wanted these battery-powered cars of the future, but it also wanted to have a piece of the value chain. So Brazil announced a new policy: If you want access to our market, build cars here.
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