Anyone who spends ten or twelve hours a day behind the wheel of a ride-hail car knows the vehicle is both the tool of the trade and, often, the biggest bill in the household. For those drivers, the road to owning a new car just got longer, in a good way: Brazil's CMN (Conselho Monetário Nacional, the country's top credit policy council, which brings together the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry) decided on Thursday (27) to extend the maximum financing term under Move Brasil, a federal program for ride-hail drivers and taxi drivers, to 84 months, or seven years. The decision was reported by Folha de S.Paulo and also covered by Valor Econômico and Brasil 247.

Move Brasil was created in June through a medida provisória, a type of presidential decree, under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Interest rates are set by the CMN itself and sit well below market levels: 12.6% a year for men and 11.5% a year for women, compared with an average of about 28% a year for regular car financing, according to figures monitored by the government.

In practice, here is what changes for drivers:

• Term: up to 84 months (seven years) to pay off the car;
• Who can apply: taxi drivers and ride-hail drivers with an active registration for at least one year and at least one hundred rides on the platform during that period;
• Vehicle price cap: R$ 200,000, raised on August 20 (the previous limit was R$ 150,000);
• Eligible cars: flex-fuel, hybrid or ethanol-hybrid models from automakers enrolled in the Mover industry program.

Automakers rush to add models

The higher price cap, announced on August 20, came with another change: cars combining electricity with another fuel, such as gasoline or ethanol, now count as hybrids. Since then, according to Folha, automakers have asked the government to include new models under the special conditions. On Wednesday (26), Chinese carmaker BYD said its King, Song Pro, Song Pro Flex and Atto 2 models can now be financed through the program.

The brands enrolled in Mover are Volkswagen, Fiat, Renault, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Peugeot, Toyota, BMW, BYD and GWM. The driver-focused branch of the program, called Move Aplicativos, was launched in May at an event with Lula at the Casa de Portugal, in São Paulo's Liberdade neighborhood.

Decisions on terms and interest rates fall to the CMN. It is the second time in just over a week that the government has loosened Move Brasil conditions, first by raising the vehicle price cap and now by stretching the repayment period.