the European dreams of the Chinese giant BYD pass through a factory in Türkiye

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (center) flanked by BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu (right) and Turkish Industry Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacir (left) during the signing of the agreement on the establishment of the future factory, in Istanbul, July 8, 2024. TURKISH PRESIDENTAL PRESS SERVIC / AFP Fields of vines, olive trees and fig trees, wild grasses everywhere. It’s hard to imagine that this land pampered by the Mediterranean sun is preparing to welcome one of the largest electric car factories in the world, its steel and metal production lines, robots and machines capable of producing 150,000 vehicles per year. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Turkey opens the door to the European automobile market for Chinese manufacturers Add to your selections It is here, on this vast 100 hectare site, that the first concrete slab of the Chinese factory of the automobile manufacturer BYD, the world’s leading manufacturer in the electric niche – the same one that dethroned Elon Musk and his Teslas in 2023 – will be installed in just a few months. Here, in this lost and green suburb of Manisa, a banal and graceless city in the Turkish West of barely 400,000 inhabitants, half-agricultural, half-industrial, discreet railway junction and road axis located less than half a hour by car from Izmir, the country’s third city and second port. A site for which the initial investment amount planned by the Chinese giant amounts to 1 billion dollars (around 902 million euros). This shows that the announcement of the project this summer threw Turkish local and national authorities into a state of excitement. Broadcast live by the country’s main media, the signing ceremony brought together, in Istanbul, on July 8, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Minister of Industry and Technology, Mehmet Fatih Kacir, and the creator and director general of BYD, the multi-billionaire Wang Chuanfu. The latter announced its intention to impose an accelerated schedule, aiming to complete construction of the factory by the end of 2025 and to deploy the first vehicles by mid-2026. Draconian import conditions Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacir affirmed after the ceremony that “this investment in the production of vehicles with high added value will strengthen [l’]automotive industry [du pays] », rejoicing at the attractiveness of a Türkiye dedicated to becoming “a center for foreign investments and also a center of innovation and cutting-edge green technologies”. Barely a week later, during his visit to the Manisa site, he added: “This historic project in terms of scale and quality will produce electric vehicles in Turkey and export them to global markets, particularly in Europe. » Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers BYD, the Chinese automobile brand with global ambitions Add to your selections Everything is said, or almost. So here is the imposing BYD at the gates of the European automobile market with a megaproject and the Turkish blessing, after the announcement of a first factory in Hungary. A unique opportunity at a time when the tariff war between China and its partners has never weighed so much on world trade. Thus, in May, Washington quadrupled its tariffs for electric vehicles (EV) manufactured in China, now subject to 100% customs duties. You have 63.66% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.



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