China’s BYD blames Brexit as it rules out UK for first electric car plant in Europe | Automotive industry

The world’s largest seller of electric and hybrid cars will not consider building its first European car factory in the UK because of the impact of Brexit.

China’s BYD, which has been backed by the US investment billionaire Warren Buffett since 2008, intends to take on household names such as Tesla and become one of the three most popular electric vehicle brands in Europe by the end of the decade.

China’s top-selling electric car maker, which is targeting sales of about 800,000 cars annually in Europe by 2030, has shortlisted locations in Germany, France, Spain, Poland and Hungary.

“As an investor we want a country to be stable,” said Michael Shu, BYD’s European president, speaking to the Financial Times. “To open a factory is a decision for decades. Without Brexit, maybe. But after Brexit, we don’t understand what happened.”

BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams, said the UK had not even made a top 10 list of possible locations to build its first European car plant. The company already makes buses in Europe.

“The UK doesn’t have a very good solution,” said Shu. “Even on the long list we didn’t have the UK.”

The Hong Kong-listed BYD, which has its headquarters in Shenzen and began developing batteries in 1995, intends to become a global powerhouse in the electric vehicle market.

It is not the first manufacturer to have cited issues relating to Brexit in deciding not to expand business opportunities in the UK.

Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, said in 2019 that the decision to leave the EU made it too risky to build a gigafactory in the UK. The company built its first European plant in Germany, where it also created a research and development base.

Other car manufacturers are also being forced to assess their business requirements amid tough global economic conditions. Ford announced 4,000 job cuts in Europe including 1,300 in the UK in February.

Ford has said it would invest $50bn (£41bn) in electric car production by 2026, but it must also decide what to do with operations built around the internal combustion engine before bans on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. Jaguar has pledged to go all-electric by 2025 and BMW said last month that half its European sales will be electric by 2030.

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BYD is one of a handful of Chinese companies – such as Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto – targeting the European electric car market.

It has launched three models in Europe, in markets including Norway and Germany, and the all-electric Atto3 sports utility

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BYD mulls have Europe factory somewhat than having above Ford plant

BYD is exploring setting up its own manufacturing unit in Europe, a top government said, suggesting the Chinese automaking huge is extra probably to establish its possess plant than choose in excess of 1 from Ford in Germany.

“We are not focusing on specific companies’ amenities,” BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li explained in an job interview from the company’s new North American headquarters in Pasadena, California. She mentioned the automaker is far more interested in setting up its have vegetation fairly than acquiring other companies’ factories.

“We are doing feasibility experiments to see our plans for the future,” Li explained. “Like if we set up our facility in that location, what is the ideal answer out there?”

Though there are “no concentrate on nations to develop facilities however,” BYD wishes to have reliable profits and dealer networks in Europe, together with company facilities, in get to make sure client assurance in the manufacturer, she mentioned.

Ford has been in talks with close to 15 probable buyers in its plant in Saarlouis, Germany, which include BYD, individuals familiar with the make a difference have stated.

The Wall Avenue Journal to start with reported the preliminary conversations final month.

Soon after wild achievement at home selling affordable electric autos to the masses, BYD is seeking further than China. It has now declared strategies to provide its motor vehicles across Europe, which include in Germany, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, France and the United kingdom.

In Asia, BYD is setting up its 1st EV generation plant in Southeast Asia, in Thailand, and is advertising to customers in Australia, Japan and Singapore. It also has an assembly line in India.

However, the corporation, which counts Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as its largest shareholder, is dealing with escalating issues in Europe and the US with regards to China’s increasingly aggressive auto field and the nation’s development starting to be an auto-exporting powerhouse.

A new local climate and vitality legislation enacted by President Joe Biden final year seeks to limit reliance on minerals from China in the EV offer chain and motivate far more companies to make electrical cars regionally in the U.S.

Rival automakers are also pondering how to compete on cost: Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares stated in December that “to struggle the Chinese, we will have to have comparable charge constructions.”

Shenzhen-centered BYD, which bought 1.86 million pure electrical and hybrid cars and trucks previous year, primarily in China, is predominantly concentrating its attempts all around Asia, Europe and Latin The us in its quest to dominate the clear passenger transportation industry.

Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is not “helping the U.S. to be competitive in the EV race or aiding US consumers love the very best, the most revolutionary know-how,” Li stated, introducing that BYD sees China and Europe foremost EV adoption and transferring to EV penetration prices of additional than 30 per cent in the close to term.

In Latin The united states, BYD designs to be in each individual main marketplace, taking

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