China’s BYD, which is competing with Tesla for the title of the world’s largest maker of battery electric vehicles, has agreed to build a $1 billion car factory in Turkey, the Turkish government has announced.
by DCEO Wang Chuanfu of ‘s and Turkish Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kaci signed the agreement in Istanbul, according to a statement from the Turkish ministry on Monday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the signing ceremony, the ministry said.
“We want to meet the growing demand for new energy vehicles in the region and reach consumers in Europe,” BYD representatives said in the statement.
The announcement came just days after provisional additional rights on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles into the European Union came into effect. The tariffs, ranging from 17.4% to 37.6%, are aimed at stopping a flood of cheap Chinese cars built with what the EU sees as unfair government support.
Turkey has a customs union with the EU, meaning vehicles can be exported from the country to the trading bloc without paying tariffs.
Under the agreement with Turkey, BYD will invest around $1 billion in the factory, which will have a capacity to produce 150,000 electric and hybrid vehicles annually, and will also establish a research and development center for sustainable mobility technologies.
The plant is expected to begin production in late 2026 and will create around 5,000 jobs in the country.
CNN has reached out to BYD for comment but has not yet received a response.
The EU took action earlier this year, imposing an additional 17.4% import duty on vehicles BYD ships into the bloc from China, as well as a standard 10% duty on all imported cars.
Negotiations between the EU and China are expected to continue, but if no agreement is reached, the additional tariffs will become final in November.
BYD already announced in December that it would build an electric car factory in EU member state Hungary, making it the first major Chinese automaker to build passenger cars in Europe.
Scott McLean in Istanbul, Fred He in Hong Kong and Tanem Zaman in Dubai contributed reporting.
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