China’s BYD Co. plans to choose a country to build a third European plant within seven to eight months, the company’s special adviser for Europe said Tuesday.
“We are not ruling out any options and are now considering any country,” Alfredo Altavilla said, speaking at an auto show in Milan.
“The site selection process for the third plant has already started and we expect to finalize it within seven to eight months,” he added.
BYD is set to start production at an assembly plant in Hungary in October, while the company’s plant in Turkey is due to start operations in March 2026. The combined production capacity of these two plants will be up to 500,000 cars per year.
Earlier, there were media reports that BYD was considering Germany for a new assembly facility, in part because the country spoke out against the imposition of duties on Chinese car imports last year.
Altavilla denied these speculations, calling them devoid of logic. At the same time, he emphasized that a decision has not yet been made.
He noted that the company is guided by several criteria, including the competitiveness of conditions for battery and car production. At the same time, Altavilla added that it is hard to imagine BYD building a plant in a country that treats Chinese cars poorly.
