BYD plans to build additional factories in Europe as the Chinese electric-vehicle maker seeks to protect and grow its share of the region’s market in the face of rising trade barriers, according to an executive cited by the South China Morning Post. Liu Xueliang, a vice-president at the Shenzhen-based company, said Europe remains a very important regional market for BYD and that tariff increases would not be allowed to affect local consumers’ choice of BYD vehicles. Liu also reaffirmed that BYD was actively expanding its European footprint, without the report specifying the number, location or timing of the planned plants.
The move comes as the world’s largest EV maker confronts two pressures at once. At home, fiscal support for electric vehicles is being pulled back, while overseas, trade barriers aimed at Chinese EVs are rising. The European Union has been the most visible front in that shift, having imposed countervailing duties on EVs imported from China following an anti-subsidy investigation. Those measures raise the landed cost of vehicles shipped from China, eroding the price advantage that has helped Chinese manufacturers gain ground in Europe.
Building inside Europe is the most direct way to address that. Local production can allow a manufacturer to supply European customers without paying import duties on finished vehicles, and it can shorten delivery times and reduce exposure to shipping and logistics disruptions. For BYD, which has been expanding its European dealer network and model lineup, the factories would sit alongside that commercial build-out rather than replace it. The SCMP report did not disclose investment figures, production capacity, model allocations or a construction schedule for the new sites.
The context matters for investors because BYD is not the only Chinese automaker looking at European manufacturing as tariffs bite. Several peers have announced or explored local assembly and plant projects in the region, and European governments have competed to attract them with incentives. A credible local production base would give BYD a structural advantage over Chinese rivals that continue to rely on exports, while also putting it in more direct competition with established European brands on their home turf.
For the broader EV supply chain, the decision signals that trade policy is now shaping where capacity is built, not just where vehicles are sold. European battery, component and logistics suppliers could benefit from local sourcing requirements and proximity to new assembly lines, while Chinese exporters of finished vehicles face a more fragmented market. The reported move also underscores how fiscal policy at home and trade policy abroad are jointly pushing China’s largest EV producer toward deeper internationalization.
What to watch next is concrete: which European countries BYD selects, whether the plants are full assembly or partial production, how much capacity they are designed for, and whether the company confirms timelines and investment figures. Also relevant is how the European Commission’s tariff regime evolves and whether any negotiated settlement changes the calculus for Chinese exporters. BYD has not publicly detailed the new factory plans beyond Liu’s remarks, so the scale and financing of the expansion remain unverified.
Sources: https://www.scmp.com/business/china-evs/article/3372001/byd-build-new-factories-europe-combat-strict-trade-barriers-targeting-chinese-evs · BYD Newsroom · South China Morning Post · Sinocism | Bill Bishop · 36Kr