BYD France factory plan on the table, Stella Li says

BYD has put France on its shortlist for a new car factory, executive vice-president Stella Li said as the Paris Motor Show opened.

“France is on the shortlist,” Li said. She added that the company was looking very closely at the possibility of setting up a plant in the country.

Li also explained what she hopes to achieve. She wants people in France to see BYD as a French company. “I want them to like it,” she said.

BYD eyes more European plants

According to Li, BYD “will try to open a second and a third plant in Europe.” The group has already built a plant in Szeged, Hungary, and Li said it should open before the year ends.

The Szeged plant will be able to build up to 200,000 vehicles a year. BYD has already finished construction there and started trial production, with large-scale output planned for November or December.

BYD, already the top car producer in China, now wants to grow abroad. In Europe, it expects to need four factories in total. Last month, its European adviser Alfredo Altavilla, a former Fiat Chrysler executive, said the group would eventually need three assembly plants and one battery plant in Europe. “This is not something that will happen overnight,” he said at the time.

Altavilla said BYD had already held talks with carmakers and governments in Spain, France and Italy. Rather than build every plant from scratch, the company could buy underused factories.

A decision on where to put the second plant should come before the year is out, he added. After that, it would decide whether to focus next on a third car plant or a local battery plant.

Meanwhile, plans for a plant in Manisa, Turkey, able to build 150,000 vehicles a year, remain on indefinite hold.

Strong sales growth in France

BYD already relies on a well-established dealer network in France. It works with major French car retail groups such as Bymycar, Emil Frey and Bodemer, which handle sales and after-sales service in the main cities.

By July, the brand counted roughly 115 dealers across the country. In the first six months of 2026, BYD put 13,935 new cars on French roads, a 136% jump.

The push comes as electric car registrations rise sharply across the EU, driven partly by record fuel prices. At home, however, BYD sales have fallen this year, which has made overseas markets more important.

Trade tensions shape the plan

Chinese carmakers are looking for production sites in Europe ahead of expected EU local content rules. Those rules aim to protect European industry from a surge of imports from China.

In a related move, the EU’s trade chief Maroš Šefčovič said on Friday that China had agreed to “moderate” its exports of hybrids and plug-in hybrids to the bloc.

According to Li, BYD has “a strong commitment in Europe” and wants to become a local company in every region where it operates. A French factory would mark a major step towards that goal.