INTERVIEW: Bravo Motors pivots Brazil gigafactory plan, prioritizing local supply chain

Bravo Motors, through its shareholder Elag Holding and partner Xponential Battery Materials, has revised its strategy for a planned battery gigafactory in Brazil. The company is now adopting a phased approach, prioritizing the establishment of a robust local supply chain for critical cathode and anode active materials before scaling battery production, CEO Eduardo Javier Muñoz told Platts in an interview.

This strategic shift addresses persistent funding bottlenecks from Brazilian development banks, which often require traditional guarantees for innovative projects, and leverages the company's Technology Readiness Level, or TRL, 6-7 technology for modular expansion based on contracts and financial availability.

Bravo Motors previously announced plans to build a battery gigafactory in Camaçari, in the Brazilian state of Bahia. However, the company assessed that proceeding with the factory without a developed local supply chain could result in significant reliance on imports from Asia, particularly China.

This strategic pivot enables the company to build a foundation in a challenging and geopolitically sensitive market, Muñoz told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy.

"If you don't have a robust local supply chain, there is no point in manufacturing batteries, because you are in the same situation as when you don't have batteries: depending on China," he said. "It is not that the gigafactory was postponed; it was phased with a firm focus on the foundations of the project to strengthen the supply chain before scaling battery production."

Building the foundation to bridge the gap between raw minerals and battery manufacturing, the company has designed a minimum viable pilot project with an investment of about $20 million.

"We are proposing four industrial pilot plants for industries that currently do not exist in Brazil," Muñoz explained. This sequence involves creating an integrated, sustainable battery materials supply chain capable of producing the two most critical components in advanced lithium battery systems: cathode active materials and anode active materials.

This structure will allow the company to produce next-generation battery samples, secure contracts, and scale up based on actual demand.

Regarding location, Muñoz noted that Bahia remains a natural candidate due to its proximity to critical minerals, port infrastructure, and an emerging electric vehicle hub. However, the final destination will ultimately depend on "who is willing to assume the risk and make it happen."

Despite being selected in national tenders by Brazilian development bank BNDES and innovation agency FINEP, the project faces significant hurdles regarding financial guarantees.

"The money is at BNDES, and they are eager to finance us, but they need guarantees. As a start-up with foreign technology now established nationally, we do not have traditional guarantees for $20 million," Muñoz said, noting that mineral reserves are not accepted as collateral in Brazil.

He highlighted a cultural and bureaucratic gap in Brazil's financial structure for innovative, high-tech projects. "The benefit is for everyone, but nobody wants to pay the delivery fee," Muñoz said.

Muñoz emphasized that 70% of the required capital is already available at BNDES, awaiting proper guarantee mechanisms; the remaining 30% is still to be secured.

Modular expansion and next-gen technology

Instead of building a mega-factory from day one, Elag Holding and XBM are leveraging their proprietary technology -- currently at TRL 6-7 -- for modular expansion.

"Today, technologies allow us to have more assertiveness on how to produce with the same cost efficiency of a large plant but on a much smaller scale. This permits modular growth based on contracts and financial availability," he said.

The company estimates it could have pilot plants operational within 18 months of securing financing; commercial-scale production would follow within another 12 to 18 months.

On battery chemistries, Muñoz noted that nickel manganese cobalt stalled due to environmental, social and governance criteria, and geopolitical issues, while lithium iron phosphate currently dominates the market. However, his company is focusing on next-gen batteries, which promise performance improvements exceeding 150% compared to LFP.

"We started from technology, not from the desire to just buy machines and manufacture. If you don't know the chemistry those machines need to process, the machines are useless," he said.

Supply chain complexity

Muñoz outlined the extensive supply chain required for battery production. For graphite alone, the process requires concentration, micronization, and sphericalization, representing about $100 million in investment for just one component of the anode, which itself comprises only 50% of the battery's active materials.

The other 50% involves silicon and high-purity quartz transformation into trichlorosilane, a process that could require $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion in investment and produces materials for batteries, solar panels, and computer microchips.

"We have everything to succeed. What's missing is probably more dialogue between all actors, because the benefit is for everyone," he said.

Muñoz emphasized that critical minerals and battery supply chains are no longer solely about energy transition; instead, they are matters of national defense and global competitiveness.

"We are probably running 20 years behind China in this direction, but we stopped running," he warned, urging public and private sectors in the West to align their discourse with reality.

Regarding recent volatility in global lithium prices, Muñoz said the market is finding stability after a period of artificial distortion.

"China discouraged other projects from continuing to buy cheaply. But there is a point where it no longer makes sense for them to keep spending resources," he said.

"From here until 2050, we have time to occupy space with mining projects. After that, recycling will begin, and China says that by 2050 it will not need to mine anymore."

Brazil's potential, challenges

Addressing Brazil's ambitions to move beyond commodity exports, Muñoz stressed the need to align the discourse with reality.

"We need to unite discourse with reality, because discourse alone does not do it. Just talking does not make it happen. Making it happen is a bit more complicated," he said.

He noted that while Brazilian companies such as CBL and Sigma want to expand production by 200%, they face high interest rates and lack access to subsidized financing due to guarantee requirements.

"It is absurd that reserves are not accepted as guarantees. Nowhere else in the world does this happen. You have reserves, reserves are guarantees -- they are material, they have value," he said.

Muñoz concluded by emphasizing that the structural changes needed in Brazil's financial and regulatory framework require coordination between the public and private sectors. Furthermore, the private sector needs to better understand and demand the infrastructure necessary for the country's industrial future.