BYD is experiencing unstoppable growth in Europe, but it doesn’t want to limit itself to selling more and more cars here: it wants to become increasingly European. To this end, the Chinese company has confirmed that within two to three years it will be able to manufacture in Europe all the electric cars it needs to supply this market.
The main reason is obvious: to avoid the tariffs that the European Union applies to electric vehicles manufactured in China. But that’s not the only one. Beyond having factories on European soil, BYD will also change its commercial strategy in Europe. Thus, the brand that arrived in the continent with a lineup focused on EVs now believes that plug-in hybrids will be the main protagonists of its short-term sales.
“We are preparing to be more European in terms of production,” said Stella Li, executive vice president and number two of BYD, during the IAA Mobility show in Munich. The company is already finalizing its factory in Hungary, which should begin production this year, but also plans to start production in Turkey.
BYD wants to manufacture all its electric cars in Europe
The strategy allows BYD to dodge European tariffs that affect electric vehicles manufactured in China and that the EU imposed after determining that Chinese manufacturers “benefited from public subsidies.” For BYD, manufacturing within the European market therefore means reducing that trade barrier as well as bringing production closer to its customers. In addition, it cuts logistics costs and lead times.
And the transformation is already noticeable in registrations. According to ACEA, BYD is only 10,839 cars away from surpassing Ford in Europe: in the first eight months of the year it registered 234,099 units, up 144.1% from the same period in 2025, while Ford has 244,938 registrations, down 14.4%. The Chinese brand already accounts for 2.5% of the European market, compared to 1.1% a year ago.
The growth is even more striking when viewed in perspective. BYD sold 4.2 million cars worldwide in 2024, ten times more than in 2019. Although China remains its main market, the company has posted several months of declines in sales and production in its home country, so Europe is gaining weight as one of the engines of its international expansion.
The plug-in hybrids will be the other big ace
As it builds its European industrial network, BYD is preparing a major shift in its offering. The brand started by selling only electric cars in Europe, but later added plug-in hybrids, which have been well received. In the United Kingdom, for example, its best-selling model is now a PHEV.
The offensive will be even bigger. BYD will launch another three or four plug-in hybrids over the next six months and Stella Li believes they will end up beating pure electric vehicles in sales in Europe. “In the next one or two years, our plug-in hybrids will dominate the sales,” the executive stated.
The expansion will not be limited to mainstream models, either, as BYD will bring Yangwang, its luxury brand, to Europe in 2027, with which it intends to enter a market segment very different from its current models. All of this forms part of a strategy aimed at turning Europe into one of BYD’s main drivers of international growth.
Images | Reuters, BYD
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