China’s EV makers, squeezed at home, are moving into Europe’s idle car factories.
Chery will start building EVs later this year at a former Nissan plant in Barcelona, Spain. It is also in talks to have its cars built at Nissan’s Sunderland, England, factory. Geely is reportedly taking over an idle hall at Ford’s plant near Valencia in Spain, and BYDiBYDBYD Auto is a Chinese carmaker that became the world’s leading EV manufacturer in 2023, competing with Tesla for market share and global attention.READ MORE is said to be eyeing half of a Volkswagen plant in Dresden, Germany.
For years, the world’s established carmakers built in China to sell locally. Now their Chinese rivals have turned the tables, producing in Europe to skirt the tariffs on cars shipped from China and sell at competitive prices.
The challenge for European carmakers like Volkswagen, Ford, and Nissan is whether they can hold their ground against Chinese companies, which make more than half the world’s EVs and are bringing the fight to Europe.
“This is not just about filling idle capacity, it’s about embedding themselves into the European industrial ecosystem,” Bill Russo, founder of the Shanghai-based advisory firm Automobility, told Rest of World. “The winners will treat it that way.”
