BYD to build Dolphin Surf electric car at new factory in Hungary

BYD will move production of its new Dolphin Surf urban EV from China to its new factory in Hungary at the end of this year.

This will make BYD one of the first Chinese companies to build its cars in Europe and is in contrast to Leapmotor's recent decision to renege on its plan to build the European-market T03 in Poland.

BYD executive vice-president Stella Li said: "Our goal is for customers to think of BYD as a European brand."

The company now sells cars in 28 European countries, 12 of them being new to it this year.

Its new factory is being built in Szeged, in the south of Hungary, where it is "expected to create thousands of local jobs".

Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has said previously he expects a significant job boost in the region following substantial investments, although he didn't name BYD as a potential employer.

BYD says it will "utilise its expertise in integrated vertical supply chains to help create a green ‘ecosystem’ locally", but has not yet said where the EV batteries will come from. 

Autocar first reported BYD's plans to establish a production site in Europe in 2022. The brand's European assistant general manager Brian Yang said at the time that the prospect of manufacturing cars locally was "interesting", and that the brand was "seriously thinking about some localisation plans". 

The brand was previously linked with Ford's factory in Saarlouis, Germany, where production of the Focus will end in 2025, but no deal was reached between the two companies. 

BYD was quick to rule out the possibility of establishing a plant in the UK, with its Europe president, Michael Shu, telling the FT earlier this year: "As an investor we want a country to be stable. To open a factory is a decision for decades. Without Brexit, maybe. But after Brexit, we don’t understand what happened.

“The UK doesn’t have a very good solution. Even on the long list we didn’t have the UK.”

Hungary is understood to have been an attractive location for BYD because it is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative - a policy that aims to bolster the country's global industrial presence with large-scale investments and trade agreements.