BYD targets larger European market share with new plants amid tighter trade barriers
Key Facts
BYD plans to build new plants in Europe to increase its market share, the South China Morning Post reported, citing the company's vice president Liu Xueliang. Liu said Europe is an important regional market for the company and that it would not allow higher tariffs to affect local consumers' choice of its cars. The report said the new plants would be launched "soon," without specifying their locations or a construction timetable. The plan comes as Chinese electric cars face European tariffs and trade restrictions, while BYD seeks to expand its presence in the market through manufacturing in the region. The announcement points to an increase in local production, but does not yet specify the investment amount or production capacity of the new plants.
The company's facility in Hungary is its nearest announced step toward European production: the executive vice president of BYD's overseas business said the plant would begin mass production in the final quarter of 2026. This points to BYD moving from expansion plans to operating an existing facility in the region, alongside its talk of additional plants. Liu's statement did not specify whether the plants to be launched "soon" include the Hungarian facility or other sites. In a separate report, Reuters cited BYD's European adviser Alfredo Altavilla as saying the company expects to select a site for its second European facility by the end of 2026. Altavilla said BYD was in the initial phase of production at its first passenger-car plant in Hungary, placing the second site selection among its next expansion steps.
Altavilla said Spain and France were the "most viable" options for the second European plant, and that the company preferred to buy an existing plant and refurbish it to accelerate local production. This option would make use of an existing facility rather than starting the project from scratch, Reuters reported. The adviser did not announce the selection of a specific country or plant, while the expected deadline for deciding on the site remains the end of 2026. In the long term, he said BYD would need three car-assembly plants and one battery plant in Europe to support growth and comply with European Union rules. These figures reflect a broader vision for a regional production network, but remain a future need described by the adviser, not an announcement of confirmed additional sites or projects.
The manufacturing plans come amid a European push toward local-content rules: Reuters reported that the European Union was working on "Made in Europe" rules setting a minimum local-content threshold for electric cars. Those rules were still being prepared, with their introduction expected as soon as 2027, according to the report published on September 17, 2026. Altavilla linked the long-term need for assembly and battery plants to supporting growth and complying with those rules. In this context, production in Europe could give the company a local manufacturing presence as regulatory requirements evolve, while the report did not announce details of the proposed minimum local-content threshold. The new plants Liu discussed remain separate from the rules' timeline, as his statement did not link their launch schedule to those requirements.
Market data provide context for the move: new passenger-car registrations in the European Union rose 5.7% from January to September 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association. In the same period, battery-electric cars' share of the market rose to 22.7%, from 16.1% a year earlier. The European Union recorded 1,931,465 new battery-electric cars in the first nine months of 2026. The expanding electric-car base puts BYD's plan in a market where total registrations are growing and electric vehicles are gaining share. The next deadline cited by the company's adviser for selecting a site for the second facility was the end of 2026, while mass production in Hungary is expected to begin in the final quarter of the year.