BYD changes Europe strategy; will build PHEVs alongside EVs at new plants

Yahoo

08-05-2025

TURIN, Italy — BYD plans to build plug-in hybrid electric vehicles alongside battery-electric vehicles at the two plants it's constructing for Europe, marking a strategy shift for the fast-growing Chinese automaker, which is already benefiting from growing PHEV demand in the region.
BYD, which is spending a combined €5 billion to construct factories in Szeged, Hungary, and near Izmir, Turkey, told Automotive News Europe in March 2024 that it would only manufacture BEVs in Europe.
At the time, demand for full-electric cars was growing rapidly in Europe. BEV sales had risen nearly 20 percent for the year after growing 28 percent in 2023.
Fast forward to last October, and BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li said the automaker would also produce PHEVs in Europe, giving its powertrain lineup more depth. At the time, BEV sales in Europe were down 2.5 percent through nine months. In addition, BYD was gaining traction with its newly launched Seal U PHEV, which has become Europe's No. 4 seller overall among PHEVs. The Seal U was also Europe's bestselling PHEV in March.
In February, BYD told nearly 400 component suppliers at a meeting in Turin that the automaker was weighing whether to make Hungary a BEV-only plant and use Turkey for PHEVs, according to two people who were at the meeting.
When contacted by Automotive News Europe, BYD said its current plan is to build BEVs and PHEVs at both plants. In the first quarter, European sales of BEVs were up 28 percent and sales of PHEVs were up 5.3 percent, according to market researcher Dataforce.
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BYD's Hungary plant, with an initial annual capacity of 150,000 and the ability to double that if needed, is expected to start operations in October.
Media reports say BYD will invest €4 billion in total in the factory. BYD already makes electric buses in Komarom, Hungary. The Turkey factory, which will have annual capacity for 150,000 vehicles and cost an estimated €1 billion, is expected to start production in March 2026. BYD also plans to open an R&D center near the factory.
In a December interview with the German magazine Capital, Li said the first two models built in Hungary will be the Dolphin small car and Atto 3 compact crossover. Those could be followed by the Atto 2 small SUV and the Seagull minicar, which will be called Dolphin Surf for Europe, she told the magazine.
When asked to confirm the report, BYD declined to identify which vehicles will be made at the factories and in what cadence.
The revised European strategy is part of the company's broader plan to expand its PHEV portfolio in the region, where volume automakers including BYD, Volkswagen brand and Toyota have benefited from a surge in demand for the powertrain. Volume automakers increased their PHEV sales in Europe 46 percent in the first quarter, according to Dataforce.
At the European launch of the full-electric Atto 2 in February, BYD said that within six months of launching a BEV, it would add a PHEV variant to the model family. By mid-April, that timetable was shortened to three to four months — and could be shortened to roughly two months, according to sources familiar with BYD's plans.
Li said at a March roundtable with Eastern European media posted on YouTube that each BYD model offered in Europe would have a PHEV variant by mid-2026.
BYD quadrupled its European sales to 28,842 vehicles from 7,701 in the first quarter. The Seal U accounted for 10,962 sales, which means that 38 percent of BYD's overall volume came from PHEVs in the period, up from 0 percent in the first quarter of 2024, Dataforce figures show.
Despite its growth overseas, BYD remains heavily reliant on China. While overall sales rose 41 percent to 4.27 million vehicles last year, making BYD the world's third-largest automaker after Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen Group, just 417,000 of that volume was sold outside of China.
In 2025, BYD aims to sell 5.5 million vehicles globally, according to Chinese media reports. This includes doubling overseas sales to 800,000. BYD's 2026 goal is 6.5 million global sales, according to the reports.