BYD may acquire EV plants in Europe amid waning China demand

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.

Stellantis, the French-Italian group whose brands also include Peugeot and Fiat, did not immediately comment when asked about the report by AFP.

The European car market has not fully recovered from the Covid pandemic downturn and their factories are operating on average at only half capacity.

They also face an onslaught from Chinese carmakers, whose rapidly advancing technical prowess and low production costs pose major risks to global rivals.

Li also said BYD is looking at snapping up legacy brands in Europe that are struggling, citing Stellantis's Maserati luxury brand as "very interesting".

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