On September 16, BYD Europe advisor and former Fiat Chrysler executive Alfredo Altavilla told reporters in Turin that to support its European sales target and meet EU localization requirements, BYD plans long term to build three vehicle assembly plants and one battery factory in Europe—four plants in total.
The site for the second European plant is expected to be decided by year-end, with BYD favoring acquiring and retrofitting existing factories over building from scratch; Spain and France are the top candidates. BYD is also in talks with other European automakers and local governments to take over underutilized plants. Its first European plant, in Hungary, has already begun production; Italy remains a lower-priority "Plan B."
The push is backed by export strength: in the first eight months BYD's overseas sales rose 85.72% to 1,162,260 units, with August overseas sales hitting a record 189,466 units, up 134.45% and 43.03% of monthly total. Management has raised its 2026 overseas target to 1.9–2.0 million units and set a 2027 goal above 2.5 million. Local plants are described as a "passport" to selling long term in a tariff- and local-content-bound Europe.
Source: BYD / Financial Times
