Once touted as a project that would help make Turkey one of Europe’s centres of electric car production, a 1.6 million-square-metre plot of land in Manisa has sat idle for the past two years, covered with grass and dirt.
When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared before cameras in July 2024 to announce that Ankara had secured a $1bn investment from Chinese EV giant BYD, officials were jubilant.
Under the agreement, BYD committed to establishing a production facility for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles with an annual capacity of 150,000 units, as well as an R&D centre focused on sustainable mobility technologies.
The facility, which was expected to begin production by the end of 2026, was also projected to create up to 5,000 direct jobs.
Now, however, BYD appears to have other plans. In an interview with Reuters, BYD executive vice president Stella Li said the company had paused work on a plant in Turkey while prioritising production in Europe.
