Mustafa Kamachi/Turkish Presidential Palace/Anadolu/Getty Images
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (center), BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu (right) and Turkey’s Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kaciri (left) meet in Istanbul on July 8, 2024.
Hong Kong
CNN
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China’s BYD competes with Tesla for the title of world’s top automaker The Turkish automaker, a leading maker of battery electric vehicles, has agreed to build a $1 billion car factory in Turkey, the government said.
BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu and Turkey’s Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kazi signed the agreement in Istanbul, according to a statement from the ministry on Monday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also attended the signing ceremony. During the ceremony, it said.
“The company aims to meet the growing demand for new energy vehicles in the region and reach European consumers,” the statement quoted a BYD representative as saying.
The announcement came just days after temporary tariffs on Chinese-made EV imports into the EU came into force. The tariffs, ranging from 17.4% to 37.6%, are aimed at blocking the influx of cheap Chinese cars made with what the EU sees as unfair government support.
Turkey has a customs union with the EU, which means vehicles can be exported from Turkey to the trade bloc duty-free.
Under the agreement with Turkey, BYD will invest about $1 billion in the factory to produce 150,000 electric and hybrid vehicles per year, as well as set up a research and development center for sustainable mobility technologies at the facility.
The factory is expected to start production at the end of 2026 and create up to 5,000 jobs in the country.
CNN has reached out to BYD for comment but has not received a response.
Earlier this year, the EU imposed an additional 17.4% tariff on vehicles that BYD exports to the EU from China. The EU imposes a standard 10% tariff on all car imports.
Negotiations between the EU and China are expected to continue, but if no agreement is reached, additional tariffs will be imposed in November.
BYD already announced in December that it would build an EV factory in Hungary, an EU member state, making it the first major Chinese automaker to do so. Manufacture of passenger cars in Europe.
