By Alberto Alerigi
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian motor maker Weg is set to begin selling made-in-Europe EV battery chargers to that same market next year, while it also looks to ramp up planned investments in Mexico to meet rising demand for electrical parts there, executives said on Friday.
“We already started EV charge operations in Europe, and starting next year, we will have products on the market manufactured in Europe,” Weg’s Managing Director of Digital and Systems Carlos Grillo said in a presentation.
CEO Alberto Kuba added that the company is also speeding up an expansion of its component manufacturing capacity in Mexico – Latin America’s second-largest economy and a major car manufacturer – to meet strong demand for alternators from Marathon, a company it acquired in 2023.
“We’re speeding up everything we can in Mexico. Investments that were planned for 2026, 2027, 2028 are being brought forward,” he said, adding that recent uncertainties caused by U.S. trade policy has also encouraged the move.
The Trump administration has imposed heavy sanctions on goods from Brazil.
Full integration of Marathon will likely take two to three more years, Kuba said.
In Brazil, where according to executives Weg supplies batteries to 60% of the country’s 1,168 electric buses operating so far, Grillo said the company has launched a repair and maintenance center for electric vehicles in Sao Paulo state.
Grillo said this center should in the medium-term offer battery maintenance, capacity expansion and recycling services. He did not share a specific date.
Weg also plans to launch a new battery charger next year with a capacity of around 1 megawatt, Grillo added. Its best charger currently has a capacity of 640 kilowatts.
(Reporting by Alberto Alerigi; Writing by Fernando Cardoso; Editing by Sarah Morland and Chizu Nomiyama )
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