Chinese automaker BYD is considering Spain and France as the main locations for its next plant in Europe. The company wants to acquire an existing facility and retrofit it in order to start the assembly line faster. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
According to Reuters, Alfredo Altavilla, BYD's European adviser, said the company is looking for operating or idle car plants across Europe. This approach would allow production to start faster than building a facility from scratch.
"We need to find something now that can be bought, restored relatively inexpensively and launched quickly," Altavilla said.
He also said he constantly visits plants across Europe. According to the adviser, representatives of competing automakers are engaged in the same search.
"In airports, we all constantly run into each other," the adviser noted.
BYD is considering Italy, but faces a limited choice of available facilities. According to Altavilla, the country's largest automaker, Stellantis, is not ready to sell its plants.
At the same time, BYD has already started producing cars at its first European facility in Hungary. A decision on the location of the second plant is expected to be made by the end of the year.
The search for production sites is linked to the European Union's plans to introduce requirements for a minimum share of local components in electric vehicles. The "Made in Europe" rules are still being developed and could come into force as early as 2027.
The Chinese are seeking to expand their presence within the EU and prepare for the new requirements. In the long term, BYD wants to have three assembly plants and one battery production facility in Europe.
Earlier, Kursiv Auto reported that BYD is closing in on Chery in global car exports.