Reuters: BYD's Second European Plant May Be Completed via Acquisition
According to Reuters (Japanese edition), on June 10: BYD is considering acquiring an existing automobile factory in Southern Europe as its second assembly plant in Europe, with Spain among the potential locations.
Executive Vice President Stella Lee delivered a speech at the European launch event for the compact electric vehicle "Dolphin G" held in Berlin, Germany on the 10th, without mentioning specific candidate countries or timelines for site selection.
The day before, she told Reuters that BYD’s top priority is starting production at its Hungary plant, which will become the company’s first European manufacturing base this fourth quarter—about one year later than originally planned. Meanwhile, construction of the Turkish factory has been temporarily postponed.
BYD’s European sales reached approximately 188,000 units last year, up 270% year-on-year. Sales in Europe from January to May this year have doubled compared to the same period last year, exceeding 100,000 units.
Producing in Europe can help avoid additional tariffs imposed by the EU on vehicles made in China. At the same time, Stellantis EVs in Europe are pushing to rent out idle production capacity to startups like Zeekr and Dongfeng Motor, enabling both automakers to achieve localized production in Europe.
Alfredo Altavilla, BYD’s Special Advisor for Europe, told Reuters that the EU’s newly proposed regulation requiring local sourcing rates for components under the “Made in Europe” initiative will come into effect before new factories begin operations, prompting Chinese automakers to place greater emphasis on utilizing existing facilities for production.
With no time to build new factories, the only viable option is to leverage and refurbish existing equipment and facilities.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1867673055656967/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.