Brazil sues China carmaker BYD over 'slave-like' conditions
Authorities halted construction of the plant late last year after workers were found living in cramped accommodation with "minimum comfort and hygiene conditions", the MPT said. Some workers slept on beds without mattresses and one toilet was shared by 31 people, it said in a statement.The MPT also alleged that construction site staff had their passports confiscated and were working under "employment contracts with illegal clauses, exhausting work hours and no weekly rest."Prosecutors said the workers had up to 70% of their salaries withheld and faced high costs to terminate their contracts."Slavery-like conditions", as defined by Brazilian law, include debt bondage and work that violates human dignity.The factory was being built in the city of Camacari in the north east of Brazil.It was scheduled to be operational by March 2025 and was set to be BYD's first EV plant outside of Asia.BYD, short for Build Your Dreams, is one of the world's largest EV makers. In April, it outsold Elon Musk's Tesla in Europe for the first time, according to car industry research firm Jato Dynamics.The firm has been looking to increase is presence in Brazil, which is its largest overseas market. It first opened a factory in São Paulo in 2015, producing chassis for electric buses.
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Reuters
a day ago
- Reuters
Tesla beats Chinese rivals in some driving assisted tests, say China state media, Bytedance
BEIJING, July 25 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk's Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab outperformed Chinese rivals including BYD, Xiaomi and Huawei in a test of assisted driving technologies on China's highways, according to results published by TikTok owner Bytedance's auto unit Dcar. State television CCTV and Dcar jointly tested the level 2 advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) from more than 20 electric vehicle brands in China and rated their performance in a series of scenarios with higher risks of accidents on highways and urban traffics. The test videos posted by Dcar went viral on Chinese social media. Tesla scored the best in the highway test among 36 models, with its Model 3 and Model X passing five out of six scenarios, while BYD's Denza Z9GT and Huawei-backed Aito M9 failed in three scenarios. Xiaomi's SU7 passed in one of six. In a Weibo post on Friday, HIMA, the Huawei-led auto alliance, said it declined to comment on the "so-called test." BYD and Xiaomi didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. "Due to laws against data export, Tesla achieved the top results in China despite having no local training data," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on his X account on Friday. Tesla has been caught in what Musk described as a "quandary", as the U.S. doesn't allow its AI software to be trained in China, while the automaker has been seeking approval from Chinese regulators to transfer data saved locally in Shanghai back to the United States for algorithm training. Domestic brands should face up to the gap with Tesla in autonomous driving, Wang Yao, deputy chief engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, told an auto forum in Shanghai earlier this month. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, in remarks after a Tesla Model Y delivered itself from an Austin, Texas factory to its owner in the area roughly 30 minutes away, said "we will continue to learn" from Tesla which has led industry trends. The test came amid growing safety concerns in China about the ADAS after a highway accident involving a Xiaomi SU7 killed three people in March. State media have blamed misleading promotions for resulting drivers' improper uses of the technologies and the authorities have banned the uses of terms such as "smart driving" and "autonomous driving" for marketing driving assistance features. The public security ministry said this week that the country will set out legal responsibilities related to the technology that has yet achieved true autonomous driving. Drivers face safety and legal risks if they are distracted in accidents when assisted driving is turned on, the ministry warned. Xiaomi had seen a slump in new EV orders as a consumer backlash began in April following the fatal trash, but the impact seems short-lived, with its new electric SUV receiving exceptionally strong initially orders after it went on sale last month. Tesla's sales of its China-made electric vehicles edged up 0.8% in June from a year earlier, snapping an eight-month losing streak, but they continued to fall on a quarterly basis in the face of lower-cost new models from its Chinese rivals. Tesla's assisted driving suite is available in China for nearly $9,000, while the technology from its local rivals including Xiaomi and BYD ( opens new tab is without extra cost, pressuring the U.S. automaker's self-driving future. Tesla's technology approach relies solely on cameras as sensors and artificial intelligence while most Chinese peers including BYD use lidar (light detection and range sensors) additionally to ensure performance. ($1 = 7.1624 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
BYD fires against UK Government's EV grants
The world's largest electric car maker, China's BYD (Build Your Dreams), has come out firing against the UK Government's new EV subsidies, branding the newly announced grants 'stupid'. Labour last week announced a £4.5billion package to support the transition to zero emission transport with a new £650million-backed Electric Car Grant taking centre stage and attracting much attention - though not all for the right reasons. There's already widespread criticism of the scheme with experts calling it 'a waste of public spending' and industry warning it could further compound 'rampant EV depreciation'. But BYD's rejection of the initiative is perhaps the most scathing reaction so far. It has been fuelled by reports that Chinese car makers have seemingly been left short by the UK Government; it is reported that the region's ongoing reliance on coal-powered energy for its vehicle assembly and battery manufacturing will fail to adhere to the scheme's sustainability criteria. Manufacturers will discover if they've met the required thresholds to qualify early next month. BYD's CEO Wang Chuanfu called the subsidies a 'bit of a joke', hitting out at their effectiveness. He told the Financial Times : 'They are too small and too late. By the time they start to take effect, the market will already be saturated with Chinese EVs.' BYD's vice-president Stella Li, also predicts that the Chinese brand's sales wouldn't be affected by the policy, telling the FT that the world's biggest EV producer is undeterred and will create 5,000 more jobs by next year as part of its rapid European expansion. On 15 July, Transport Secretary Heid Alexander announced that drivers across the UK will soon enjoy discounts on a range of new electric cars of up to £3,750 . Part of the Plan for Change, the grant is aimed at making electric car ownership a reality for thousands of people by 'putting money back in working people's pockets'. Supporting Labour's phase out of the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, the Electric Car Grant (ECG) is the first buyers will get incentives for new EV purchases since the previous Conservative regime withdrew its Plug-In Car Grant in 2022. Although cars price at or under £37,000 are eligible, many won't make the cut for the highest available subsidy of £3,750, let alone the lower £1,500 grant allowance, if they fail to meet stringent manufacturing emissions barometers. Manufacturers have been invited to apply for the grant scheme, though it is unclear which models will be eligible. Reports have said the Department for Transport will provide a list of qualifying EVs on 11 August. However, the DfT has told This is Money that it will be releasing a list of some money eligible before then, likely in the first week of next month. That said, Chinese car makers almost certainly face the biggest difficulties qualifying, with recent reports suggesting their EVs will be banned altogether. While many Chinese manufacturers - including MG, LeapMotor and Great Wall Motors (GWM) - have already announced their own EV grants of similar discounted value to compensate, BYD says it isn't going to follow suit. Instead it's going against the grain and dismissing both the introducing of the grants and their use. 'It does not make any sense. This subsidy actually sounds like they will give some companies a benefit, but it's more like a drug. If you get rid of this, you will suffer,' Li told the FT. Alfredo Altavilla, a special advisor for BYD's European operations, also said that there's not way to prevent the success of Chinese-made cars in the long run: 'The question is, is there any European government who can afford to fight against Chinese-made cars forever? No. So what's the purpose of doing all this?' To prove a point, BYD is going full steam ahead with its expansion plans, aiming to produce cars in Hungary and Turkey and open 2,000 retail stores in Europe, 280 of which will be in the UK. Each dealership will employ around 20 people. BYD has also signed a new sponsorship deal with Italian football club Inter Milan to appear on the back of team shirts. The arrangement will see both the men's first team and its top management and coaches provided with 70 BYD vehicles. The Shenzhen-based company is building on its highly successful Euro 2024 sponsorship which helped push brand awareness in the UK from just one per cent in 2023 to 31 per cent in 2024. Li said: 'My dream is in five years, you're walking in a supermarket and everyone will know, 'oh, BYD, we know them, they're a high-tech company'. In the fourth quarter of 2024 BYD overtook Tesla as the largest EV manufacturer in the world, and as of April 2025 it also sold more pure EVs in Europe than Tesla for the first time. As such it's been called an 'overnight success' and as of March 2025 has sold a whopping 11.6 million EVs.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
World's largest EV maker brands Labour's Electric Car Grant 'stupid'
The world's largest electric car maker, China's BYD (Build Your Dreams), has come out firing against the UK Government's new EV subsidies, branding the newly announced grants 'stupid'. Labour last week announced a £4.5billion package to support the transition to zero emission transport with a new £650million-backed Electric Car Grant taking centre stage and attracting much attention - though not all for the right reasons. There's already widespread criticism of the scheme with experts calling it 'a waste of public spending' and industry warning it could further compound 'rampant EV depreciation'. But BYD's rejection of the initiative is perhaps the most scathing reaction so far. It has been fuelled by reports that Chinese car makers have seemingly been left short by the UK Government; it is reported that the region's ongoing reliance on coal-powered energy for its vehicle assembly and battery manufacturing will fail to adhere to the scheme's sustainability criteria. Manufacturers will discover if they've met the required thresholds to qualify early next month. BYD's CEO Wang Chuanfu called the subsidies a 'bit of a joke', hitting out at their effectiveness. He told the Financial Times: 'They are too small and too late. By the time they start to take effect, the market will already be saturated with Chinese EVs.' BYD's vice-president Stella Li, also predicts that the Chinese brand's sales wouldn't be affected by the policy, telling the FT that the world's biggest EV producer is undeterred and will create 5,000 more jobs by next year as part of its rapid European expansion. On 15 July, Transport Secretary Heid Alexander announced that drivers across the UK will soon enjoy discounts on a range of new electric cars of up to £3,750. Part of the Plan for Change, the grant is aimed at making electric car ownership a reality for thousands of people by 'putting money back in working people's pockets'. Supporting Labour's phase out of the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, the Electric Car Grant (ECG) is the first buyers will get incentives for new EV purchases since the previous Conservative regime withdrew its Plug-In Car Grant in 2022. Although cars price at or under £37,000 are eligible, many won't make the cut for the highest available subsidy of £3,750, let alone the lower £1,500 grant allowance, if they fail to meet stringent manufacturing emissions barometers. Manufacturers have been invited to apply for the grant scheme, though it is unclear which models will be eligible. Reports have said the Department for Transport will provide a list of qualifying EVs on 11 August. This is Money is seeking confirmation from the department to verify this date. However, Chinese car makers almost certainly face the biggest difficulties qualifying, with recent reports suggesting their EVs will be banned altogether. While many Chinese manufacturers - including MG, LeapMotor and Great Wall Motors (GWM) - have already announced their own EV grants of similar discounted value to compensate, BYD says it isn't going to follow suit. Instead it's going against the grain and dismissing both the introducing of the grants and their use. 'It does not make any sense. This subsidy actually sounds like they will give some companies a benefit, but it's more like a drug. If you get rid of this, you will suffer,' Li told the FT. Alfredo Altavilla, a special advisor for BYD's European operations, also said that there's not way to prevent the success of Chinese-made cars in the long run: 'The question is, is there any European government who can afford to fight against Chinese-made cars forever? No. So what's the purpose of doing all this?' To prove a point, BYD is going full steam ahead with its expansion plans, aiming to produce cars in Hungary and Turkey and open 2,000 retail stores in Europe, 280 of which will be in the UK. Each dealership will employ around 20 people. BYD has also signed a new sponsorship deal with Italian football club Inter Milan to appear on the back of team shirts. The arrangement will see both the men's first team and its top management and coaches provided with 70 BYD vehicles. The Shenzhen-based company is building on its highly successful Euro 2024 sponsorship which helped push brand awareness in the UK from just one per cent in 2023 to 31 per cent in 2024. Li said: 'My dream is in five years, you're walking in a supermarket and everyone will know, 'oh, BYD, we know them, they're a high-tech company'. In the fourth quarter of 2024 BYD overtook Tesla as the largest EV manufacturer in the world, and as of April 2025 it also sold more pure EVs in Europe than Tesla for the first time. As such it's been called an 'overnight success' and as of March 2025 has sold a whopping 11.6 million EVs.
