Chinese electric car giant to invest in Chilean lithium mining

Stella Li, executive vice president of BYD, had an intense week on her journey through Chile. BYD is known in Chile for supplying the fleet of electric buses, which already number 435 units, and for winning the tender to exploit lithium during the Piñera government, later annulled by the courts. In the world of finance, his fame comes from Warren Buffett, the oracle of Omaha, who bet on the Chinese firm 14 years ago.

In an interview with Diario Financiero, Stella Li said that they are preparing more investments in Chile, which will focus on lithium and the value addition process. “We want to build the largest lithium value-added chain in Latin America in Chile.”

Its objective is to produce raw material for batteries.

We produce electric trucks, electric buses, electric taxis, and electric cars. And BYD is also a big player in solar power and battery storage. So this is kind of an ecological system. We want to build an alliance in Chile with different partners here (for electromobility and solar energy)”.

Regarding the industrialization of lithium, he said that Chile has one of the largest reserves of lithium and copper, two very important elements for electric cars in the future. So he believes that the Chilean government should use the most advanced technology to enlarge, or perhaps build, the best and most compact mining industry in the world.

In order for these two areas to be number one, first the government needs to expand the technological capacity here, catch up, somehow bring in new capacity and be in the top two or three in the industry.

“The Chilean government should welcome companies like ours: technology companies, that bring a lot of R&D, bring a lot of technology here to help the government reach the leadership position for lithium and copper. In lithium, we could give free licenses to the government. So that’s a very important step.”

In lithium extraction, Chile may lose leadership in the coming years against Australia and Argentina, leaving China aside. Stella Li believes that BYD’s ability to respond to various situations is what has kept them going.

“We are the technology company that the Chilean government needs to speed up this process. We have the capacity to face any challenge. For example, during the pandemic, due to the lack of masks, we were the only company in the world to build a production line in two weeks.

And then, in a month or two, we became the largest producer of masks in the world. That’s the kind of ability BYD has. So the Chilean government should act aggressively and speed up any legal or legislative process to partner with a technology company, like BYD,” he concluded.