Chinese electric vehicle (EV) companies are increasingly building factories in Southeast Asia and Turkey. This move is seen as a strategy to find alternatives amid rising tariffs imposed by the United States and the European Union (EU).
According to Xinhua News Agency and AFP, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu signed a $1 billion agreement on July 8 in Istanbul with Turkish Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacir to construct a new factory. Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also attended the signing ceremony.
BYD plans to equip the Turkish factory with production facilities capable of producing 150,000 electric and hybrid vehicles annually and plans to open a research and development (R&D) center. The company is scheduled to start factory operations by the end of 2026 and directly employ 5,000 people in Turkiye.
BYD’s decision to build a factory in Turkiye is due to the Customs Union agreement between Turkiye and the EU, which took effect in 1996. Under this agreement, cars manufactured in Turkiye can be exported to the EU under more favorable conditions. Considering this, global automakers such as Ford, Toyota, and Hyundai are producing cars in Turkiye.
On July 5, the EU applied a tariff rate of up to 47.6% on Chinese-made EVs.
In a released statement, BYD said, “Our goal is to approach European consumers, who are seeing an increase in demand for alternative energy vehicles. By investing in Turkey, which offers various advantages, we expect BYD’s productivity to improve and logistics efficiency to also be enhanced.”
