BYD Planning 4 Factories in Europe
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BYD’s big focus at the moment seems to be finding ways to expand globally and grow its sales outside of China as fast as possible. The Chinese market is not the hottest, which is surely part of it, but it’s also clearly a prime time in the transition to electric vehicles and BYD is probably trying to ensure that it captures market share in countries around the world before it’s “too late” — or just much harder to break into a settled market.
Right now, there’s not much competition in most markets across Asia, South America, North America, and Africa. BYD is jumping into a bunch of countries on these continents and gobbling up new customers quickly. There’s already significant competition in Europe, but even in Europe, there are almost no markets where EVs have more than 50% of the market. It’s also a huge market for new-vehicle sales. So, one key target for BYD is the European market.
To help achieve its goals, now that the EU has high tariffs on EVs produced in China, BYD has to set up production facilities in Europe. The news this week is that BYD is planning on having three vehicle assembly plants in Europe and one battery factory there. That’s the plan for now, at least.
“BYD is currently starting production at its first European plant in Hungary and expects to decide by the end of the year on a second manufacturing site, Alfredo Altavilla told a presentation in Turin on Wednesday,” Reuters writes. “The company is looking to acquire and refurbish an existing facility rather than build a new plant from scratch, with Spain and France among its preferred locations, he said.”
That’s currently the long-term plan. Though, naturally, if things go well, that long-term plan could grow; and if things go badly, perhaps BYD will downsize its plans. What do you think — is this plan too big, too small, or just right?
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