In November, the hypothesis was to look at more than one plant in perspective, also in Brazil. But to begin with BYD, the exponentially growing Chinese electric car giant, is exploring setting up its own factory in Europe. Different project from the one leaked a few weeks ago to take over a site from Ford in Germany. “We are not focusing on other companies’ facilities,” said executive vice president, Stella Li, from the company’s new North American headquarters in Pasadena, California. It seems that there are “no target countries yet”. On the other hand, it is certain that BYD wants to build solid sales networks and resellers in Europe, together with assistance centres, in order to win the trust of consumers because the brand image in the West, Norway aside, is still to be built.
Ford, however, is in talks with about 15 potential investors for its plant in Saarlouis, western Germany, not far from the French border. It still includes BYD, because the talks have not stopped completely. The Wall Street Journal first reported the preliminary discussions last month.
In China, BYD holds a third of the electric car market. The increase in sales to 1.86 million cars was 209% for NEVs (which also include plug-in hybrids) and 184% for BEVs, battery-powered cars. With the latter, the Chinese group has exceeded 900,000 deliveries against 1.4 million for Tesla, but the growth rate of the oriental brand is much higher (Tesla +40%). Now BYD looks beyond China. It has already announced the assault on markets across Europe: Germany, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. In Italy the Han, Tang and Atto 3 models should arrive in 2023, but the dates are to be defined
As for Asia, BYD is building its first electric vehicle manufacturing plant in southeast Thailand, and is selling to Australia, Japan and Singapore. It also has an assembly line in India.
The Shenzhen group, with about 300,000 employees and 27,000 patents, counts Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as its largest shareholder and will have to face defensive strategies in Europe and the United States, where the Chinese industry, now highly competitive in the automotive sector electricity, aims to quickly conquer important market shares.
A new climate and energy law President Joe Biden enacted last year, the Inflation Reduction Act, seeks to limit reliance on Chinese minerals in the EV supply chain and encourage more companies to produce electric cars locally in the states United. A losing strategy, according to Stella Li.