BYD gunning for European parity within five years

Chinese car manufacturer BYD is aiming to be seen as the leading tech brand of the car industry and considered alongside the major brands within half a decade, according to senior vice president Stella Li.  

“Five years from now we would like consumers to view BYD as like one of the European brands, and when they think about BYD they think about it as more like the Apple of the automotive industry,” she told Auto Express. “We want people to feel like we are a European company and an established manufacturer here.” 

Part of the brand building exercise will be a continuation of the likes of the huge Goodwood Festival of Speed stand, and sponsorship of the Euro 2024 football tournament. “More and more we will be part of any cultural event,” Li continued. “The more we participate and the more people that are driving our cars, maybe in less than five years we can achieve that.”

BYD is about to open its new UK headquarters, with one floor dedicated to an engineering team tasked with ensuring the cars drive well on UK roads, a move being replicated in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. 

“We are focused on what the consumer is looking for, what is the experience,” continued Li. “Chinese consumers have certain requirements and we develop the car for them, but the British consumer has different needs, and they are different to the French consumer and different from the Italian consumer.”

The local development is on top of a European manufacturing and R&D engineering base in Budapest, Hungary, that will begin mass production of BYD models by the end of 2025. “We will build all the mainstream cars we sell in Europe, so at that point BYD has become really European,” said Li. 

She denied that the threat of EU tariffs on Chinese-built cars was a part of the decision to manufacture in Hungary. “BYD is a global company and our strategy is to localise in different regions, so even without a tariff BYD had decided to build in Europe.”

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