Earlier this year, following a competitive bidding process, the City of Cape Town awarded the contract for its first fleet of electric buses to BYD.
According to De Lille, one of the exciting conditions of the contract is that the buses will be partly assembled in Cape Town and BYD will also source some components from local suppliers. This will create a number of jobs and will be the first time that electric buses are assembled in Cape Town. With this, Cape Town becomes the first city in Africa to use electric buses for the MyCiTi public transport system.
The factory will also be BYD's first electric bus manufacturing plant in Africa.
"As a progressive city committed to enhancing our climate change action projects, this is a major step on our journey to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support the green economy."
"The acquisition of electric buses will also help us save money as it comes with reduced maintenance and operating costs."
De Lille said she asked Wang at the signing of the deal in Mexico how Cape Town could deepen its partnership with BYD.
Wang responded: "BYD is really glad to collaborate with a leading city like Cape Town in your climate action efforts. In the near future we are planning to establish a local production plant for our electric buses in Cape Town. This is not only to help protect the environment, but will also provide jobs to people in Cape Town."
Various BYD products, including electric buses, sky-rail, and renewable energy products such as solar panels will be manufactured at this plant.
"This is precisely the kind of investment we want to attract and has been part of our strategy since 2012 to engage with the international community to promote Cape Town as an ideal place to invest in and to let the world know that Cape Town is open for business so that we can create much-needed jobs for our people."
"I welcome this announcement by Mr Wang as it will contribute greatly to our efforts to build an inclusive economy," she said.
