The Mayor of the Uruguayan city of Montevideo, Eng. Daniel Martinez has become the first mayor in Latin America to have an electric vehicle as an official car. The BYD e6 was delivered to Mr Martinez with a license plate number reserved for the city’s top official – “SIM 1”.
It is a first for the city to have an electric vehicle for a senior government official, and is in line with the country’s move towards cleaner transportation and power.
Uruguay has made sizeable investments in green energy in recent years leaping 16 places to be ranked 10 in the World Economic Forum’s Energy Architecture Power Index, a table that assesses a country’s ability to balance energy security with sustainability and economic development.
“This is yet another milestone for BYD and our Uruguayan distributor Abriley after previously working together to implement the country’s first electric taxi fleet which we are in the process of expanding,” said Fred Ni, VP of BYD America. “The electric buses we are trialing with the country’s largest urban bus operator CUTCSA is something else for us to look forward to.”
BYD plans to set up two new factories in Latin America this year to expand the market penetration of its world class electric buses. The new manufacturing facilities will produce vehicles for the local markets and add to existing plants in the US, Hungary and Brazil.
BYD’s electric bus and other new energy vehicles have a footprint in 240 cities across 50 countries.
