Auto China 2024: BYD considers additional EU locations

While German manufacturers currently plan and produce more in China for China, BYD wants to take the automotive world in the opposite direction. And now Stella Li, the head of Europe, dares to dream of becoming number one, at least in the electric vehicle segment.

With 15,600 units in Germany, they are still far away from that goal, but in 2024 the first BYD plant in Europe is set to go online in Hungary and alone produce the 300,000 cars already sold in the EU in 2023. With shorter routes, less CO2, and tariffs. The latter and transportation quickly drive up the prices of Chinese imports by around 30 to 35 percent, according to an insider.

BYD also visibly increased in China

In fact, BYD has visibly increased in its home market: Compared to our last pre-pandemic visit to Beijing, Han and Co. are now much more present on the streets, but they have also escaped the niche in Europe.

Interesting: The brand was founded in 1995 as a battery manufacturer and now employs around 700,000 people across its various divisions - more than Volkswagen. In 30 plants, they produce, besides batteries and storage units (which also often come from BYD in Europe's houses and residential complexes), tablet PCs, mobile phone cases, buses, trucks, medical technology, and indeed cars. More than three million passenger cars in 2023, 70 percent of them purely electric, 30 percent as plug-in hybrids. With this, BYD ousted Tesla as the world's largest electric car manufacturer. Therefore, they are now considering a second production facility.