The BYD (EV) Thread

BYD talking to Stellantis, others to buy European factories: report

Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD is talking with Jeep-maker Stellantis and other carmakers on taking over their EU plants as part of its international expansion drive, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

The talks come weeks after Stellantis shocked investors with a 22-billion-euro write-down on its EV operations, saying it had overestimated demand for clean-energy cars.

"We are talking to not only Stellantis, we're talking to other companies too," Stella Li, BYD's vice president in charge of international operations, said on the sidelines of an auto conference in London.

"We are looking for any available plant in Europe because we do want to utilise this kind of spare capacity," she said.

BYD last year became the world's biggest seller of EVs but its earnings have slumped due to weak domestic demand, leading it to seek out bigger markets overseas.

Stellantis announced last week that it was considering selling an underutilised factory in Spain to its Chinese joint venture partner Leapmotor.

 
BYD to launch new wave of European-specific models

New B- and C-segment cars will arrive over the next three years, starting with Dolphin G PHEV supermini in June

BYD will launch a wave of models designed and developed in Europe for Europe over the next three years, starting with the plug-in hybrid Dolphin G next month.

The Dolphin G will be shown for the first time in the UK at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July, with an unveiling understood to take place in June.

As previously reported by Autocar, it will effectively serve as a combustion-engined alternative to the Dolphin Surf EV, making it the smallest PHEV available in the UK.

Executive vice-president Stella Li has previously told Autocar that “our goal is for customers to think of BYD as a European brand”.

Speaking today at a Financial Times event in London, she said: “[The Dolphin G] is the first product we have designed for Europe, as there is no interest in China [for this type of car], and in the future there will be more and more products designed for European tastes and consumer needs and designed here."

She continued: “We see the bigger gap now. In China the competition is making cars bigger and bigger and the chassis wider and wider; it has become crazy. This makes it impossible in Europe: you cannot have a bigger car running in Paris, in Milan, in Rome, in London. People [there] still prefer the smaller-sized cars.

www.autocar.co.uk

BYD to launch new wave of European-specific models – and the first will be revealed next month | Autocar

New B- and C-segment cars will arrive over the next three years, starting with Dolphin G PHEV supermini in June
www.autocar.co.uk www.autocar.co.uk
 
FiestaST said:
BYD talking to Stellantis, others to buy European factories: report

Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD is talking with Jeep-maker Stellantis and other carmakers on taking over their EU plants as part of its international expansion drive, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

The talks come weeks after Stellantis shocked investors with a 22-billion-euro write-down on its EV operations, saying it had overestimated demand for clean-energy cars.

"We are talking to not only Stellantis, we're talking to other companies too," Stella Li, BYD's vice president in charge of international operations, said on the sidelines of an auto conference in London.

"We are looking for any available plant in Europe because we do want to utilise this kind of spare capacity," she said.

BYD last year became the world's biggest seller of EVs but its earnings have slumped due to weak domestic demand, leading it to seek out bigger markets overseas.

Stellantis announced last week that it was considering selling an underutilised factory in Spain to its Chinese joint venture partner Leapmotor.

Click to expand...
Suicidal empathy?
 
BYD negotiates for empty European car plants to boost local production

The era of shipping electric cars across the ocean from China to Europe is hitting a wall of high taxes and political tension. To solve this, BYD, the world's largest producer of EVs, is looking for a shortcut. Instead of building new factories from the ground up, the company wants to move into the buildings its competitors are leaving behind. BYD is already in talks with several European automakers, including Stellantis, to take over factories that are currently sitting idle.

Stella Li, the Executive Vice President of BYD, confirmed on May 13 that the company is actively hunting for space. The goal is simple: find existing factories that are not being used and turn them into BYD production hubs. Italy is at the top of their list for evaluation. BYD wants to use local capacity that is already there - a much faster way to start building cars than starting with a flat piece of dirt in a new country.

Stellantis is a natural partner for these talks because the giant automotive group has a lot of extra space. At the moment, Stellantis operates around 20 vehicle assembly plants across Europe, but they are under a lot of pressure to cut costs. The company has already said it is open to selling or sharing some of its production lines to reduce the financial weight of keeping so many buildings open. For BYD, a "used" factory is a bargain; for Stellantis, it is one less bill to pay.

There is a catch to how BYD wants to work, though. Many companies like to form partnerships, but BYD prefers to keep things simple. Stella Li noted that the company wants to run these facilities independently. They do not want the traditional joint-venture structure where two companies share the steering wheel. BYD wants to own the process from start to finish, ensuring their specific way of building electric cars remains unchanged by local corporate traditions.

www.arenaev.com

BYD negotiates for empty European car plants to boost local production

BYD is in discussions with Stellantis and other European manufacturers to acquire idle factory space to localize its production and avoid rising import tariffs on its growing fleet of electric cars.
www.arenaev.com www.arenaev.com
 
On paper the dolphin surf looks properly beat by the Geely E2 on all fronts and they are similarly priced. Hopefully the latest updates levels the playing field. It doesn’t seems to stop people from buying the BYD in droves through.
 
XPD said:
On paper the dolphin surf looks properly beat by the Geely E2 on all fronts and they are similarly priced. Hopefully the latest updates levels the playing field. It doesn’t seems to stop people from buying the BYD in droves through.
Click to expand...
The surf has been around longer than the E2.
 
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