By Redação AutoIndústria | Translated by Jorge Meditsch
They are still like needles in the straw, but in Brazil’s largest cities, in special, electric cars begin to be seen more frequently. A good part of them is still part of private clean mobility projects, which are gaining more diversity.
That’s the case of 99, one of Brazil’s largest personal transportation service companies. It recently strengthened its test with electric vehicles in a partnership with Seres Brasil, a national venture company structured to offer electric passenger vehicles from Seres Motors and DFSK light commercial vehicles.
Created initially as SF Motors in California, United States, Seres Motors got investments from the Chinese Dongfeng and Sokon, DFSK’s owner, to develop and manufacture electric vehicles. The company already has more than one thousand patents registered in the United States and China.
In the tests with 99, the vehicle used is the Seres 3, an SUV 4.385 m long, 1.850 m wide, and 1.650 m high with 318 l luggage capacity.
The vehicle has a front 163 cv (120 kW) motor and has a 300 km range (WLTP cycle). It can be fast charged in 38 minutes (from 20% to 80% battery capacity) and, according to the manufacturer, can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 8.9 s and reach 160 km/h.
“Seres’ cars already went through thousands of kilometers of tests in Brazil. This, with 99, provides additional information about severe and continuous urban use with different drivers”, says Domingos Boragina, responsible for Seres Brasil’s marketing area.
“Tests with electric cars help us to understand better the adaptation and needs of partner drivers and partners about the arrival of vehicle electrification in Brazil and to get data that may corroborate our investments and projects in the country”, complements Thiago Hipolito, 99’s mobility innovation senior director and DriverLAB’s leader.
