BYD has confirmed it is in talks with Stellantis and other European carmakers about taking over underused factories on the continent, the company's executive vice president Stella Li told Bloomberg on 13 May 2026. The disclosure marks the first time a Chinese automaker has acknowledged direct negotiations over existing European production capacity rather than greenfield construction.
Li said the company would prefer to own and operate any acquired site outright rather than form a joint venture, an unusual stance for a Chinese carmaker entering Europe and one that puts BYD ahead of rivals on the regulatory clock. Joint ventures typically require longer EU competition reviews; full acquisitions can be cleared faster if the seller is shedding excess capacity rather than a profitable line.
Why Stellantis
Stellantis sells under fourteen brands and has been progressively cutting production at its smaller European plants since 2024. Italy is the most exposed market. Mirafiori (Turin), Pomigliano (Naples) and Termoli are operating well below installed capacity, and the Italian government has openly pushed Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa to find buyers rather than close them.
Stella Li was direct about Italy: "Italy is on the short list." She confirmed BYD is also speaking with other European OEMs but declined to name them. Reuters and Bloomberg reporting indicates Renault, Volkswagen, and Ford are not in those conversations; the candidate list is concentrated among multi-brand groups with idled stamping or paint capacity.
The Strategic Picture
BYD's first European factory in Szeged, Hungary is due to start production this summer, and a second site in Manisa, Turkey follows in 2027. A third European plant — one that did not require ground-up construction — would let BYD scale faster than Tesla did when Gigafactory Berlin moved from groundbreaking to first cars in 27 months.
The acceleration matters because BYD sold 135,000 vehicles overseas in April 2026, up 70% on April 2025 and the highest export month in the company's history. Without more European capacity that pace runs into the EU's anti-subsidy tariffs on Chinese-built EVs, which apply at the border and not to cars assembled inside the EU.
What It Means for Tesla
More European-built BYDs would put direct price pressure on the Model Y, the segment where the two companies are closest. The Atto 3 and Seal U DM-i (plug-in hybrid) already undercut the Model Y in several European markets by 15-20%, but the price gap reflects shipping and tariffs as well as the underlying cost base. A BYD assembled in Italy or another EU country closes most of that gap.
Tesla's response has been to lean on its lower-cost Model Y produced at Giga Berlin and its full-margin Supercharger and FSD offerings, where BYD has no equivalent. For European buyers, the practical effect of a BYD-Stellantis deal would be cheaper BYDs reaching showrooms by 2027 — a year earlier than would be possible from greenfield construction alone.
No timetable has been confirmed by either party. Stellantis declined to comment on specific sites. BYD said an announcement would follow once due diligence is complete.