Just like the American billionaire, Flavio Figueiredo Assis sold a company in the financial sector to invest in his own automaker, Lecar
Who followed the trajectory of the humble boy, who studied in public school and was born in the small city of Guacui, Brazil within the Holy Spirit, he never doubted that, despite the difficulties, his future would be promising. Flavio Figueiredo Assis promises to make history by launching the first electric car originally Brazilian. More than contributing to the change of the energy matrix, positively impacting the environment, its mission is to change the image of Brazil to the world. His inspiration is the American billionaire Elon Musk, who has a history similar to that of the entrepreneur.
Trained in Law and Accounting, Assis moved to the capital in search of a better life. He began his career as a banker and shortly after he left for entrepreneurship, with the creation of Financial Accounting which, under the management of the first employee and now partner, Iledson Luiz Fracalossi, became a reference in tax benefits, serving more than 400 customers. Soon after, he founded Lecard, a food card administrator PAT (Worker Feeding Program) which reached an annual turnover of R$ 1 billion, supplying to more than 600 municipalities and public agencies and more than 3 thousand private companies.
In 2022 he sold Lecard in order to accelerate an even more powerful dream: to create the first electric car manufacturer in Brazil. The idea came when the lawyer came across Law 8,723, published in 1993, which regulates the reduction of CO2 emissions from vehicles with an end date in 2027, ending the use of combustion engines in motor vehicles manufactured a partir de 2028.
With an eye on this opportunity, on 02/02/2022, the entrepreneur started Lecar, based in Alphaville, Sao Paulo and Industrial plant in Caxias do Sul/RS. The first initiative was to form a highly qualified and experienced automotive engineering team. Today, the team has 30 professionals, many of them with important passages by companies such as Gurgel, Troller, JPX, Ford, Toyota, Nissan and Marcopolo.
The capital is 100% own, but the expectation is to make the IPO (initial public offering) in 2025. “In addition to a project that favors mobility and sustainability, our goal is to make Brazil seen in a valued way, just as we should always be seen. We are the eighth economy in the world and we still did not have any national automaker.We will change the course of history”, points out.
When starting the car design project, Assis soon identified the city of Caxias do Sul, in Rio Grande do Sul, as the best place to set up his factory since several suppliers of the mobility ecosystem are in the region. There, the team dismantled a Tesla in order to understand the engineering of the competitor in the background.
About 35% of the parts of the Lecar Model 459, the company's first vehicle, will be imported from China. Engines and batteries will come from Chinese manufacturer Wiston, which also supplies two other giants in the sector: Volkswagen and Hyundai. The rest will be produced in Brazil. “Our country is privileged, with appropriate and abundant raw material for the production of 100% electric cars”, clarifies.
Always attentive to opportunities, contracts for supplies closed with various suppliers provide for the transfer of technology and technical, scientific and operational cooperation, etc this enables a battery and electric motor factory in Brazil, allowing the country to become sufficient in the production of electric cars. “We have in our country, 93% of the minerals that make up the cells of lithium batteries. In addition to being self-sufficient, we can also become protagonists and a major reference in the global electric vehicle market. Our cars will interest those who care for the environment also in other countries”, animates the entrepreneur.
The prototype will begin to be assembled next December 21, with real-time monitoring by social networks @lecarbrasil on Instagram and YouTube. In February, the car heads to a series of homologations in London, England, where it will undergo impact assessments, aerodynamics and even safety simulators. This stage will last up to nine months. After that, the product will enter the production line, and should be available to the market from December 2024.
The Lecar Model 459 will have a cost of R$ 279 thousand and autonomy of 400km per load. The estimate is to produce 300 vehicles per month already in the first year of manufacture. The focus of sales will be Greater Sao Paulo, especially between the capital, Campinas and Sao Jose dos Campos, where the company must invest in a network of infrastructure for battery recharge.
In a second moment, in addition to the expansion to the entire national territory, the visionary plans the internationalization of his automaker, especially for the USA France, Italy and Monaco. “We are already aligning a series of partnerships in these countries to take our brand to the world”, prides itself.
The great differential of the company is not only to manufacture an electric car in Brazil, but to develop a product totally designed for the country. “I have a Tesla and definitely it was not structured to run on Brazilian streets and roads. He suffers every hole. Our project is a car made for the challenges of the roads of Brazil, with cutting-edge technology, resistance, driving pleasure and aligned with the need to reduce CO2 emissions, which was the great motivator to embark on this project”, concludes.
About Lecar:
A LECAR S/The Brazilian Electric Automobile Industry is the first electric car manufacturer in Brazil.The engineering team developed a 100% electric car with design, involvement and energy fully designed by Brazilians for brazilians. The LECAR Model 459 is expected to be released in December de 2024.
