BYD will build a new electric car factory in Hungary, becoming the first Chinese company to build cars in Europe.
The new factory will be in the city of Szeged, in the south of the country, where it is "expected to create thousands of local jobs".
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has said previously he expects a significant job boost in the region following substantial investments, but did not name BYD as a potential employer.
It is not yet clear which models BYD plans to build in Europe. Currently, it sells five cars in the region – the Atto 3, Dolphin, Seal, Han and Tang – all of which are built in China, and says it will launch three more in 2024 - one of which is the Seal U SUV.
BYD says it will "utilise its expertise in integrated vertical supply chains to help create a green ‘ecosystem’ locally", but has not yet said where the EV batteries will come from.
Autocar first reported BYD's plans to establish a production site in Europe in 2022. The brand's European assistant general manager Brian Yang said at the time that the prospect of manufacturing cars locally was "interesting", and that the brand was "seriously thinking about some localisation plans".
The brand was previously linked with Ford's factory in Saarlouis, Germany, where production of the Focus will end in 2025, but no deal was reached between the two companies.
BYD was quick to rule out the possibility of establishing a plant in the UK, with European president Michael Shu telling the FT earlier this year: "As an investor we want a country to be stable. To open a factory is a decision for decades. Without Brexit, maybe. But after Brexit, we don’t understand what happened.
“The UK doesn’t have a very good solution. Even on the long list we didn’t have the UK.”
BYD's European production plans form part of a broader strategy to become the region's biggest seller of electric vehicles, accounting for one in ten battery-electric cars by 2030.
Its Hungarian factory would be the first established in Europe by a major Chinese car manufacturer. Great Wall Motors and SAIC-owned MG have also said they are keen to build locally, with the latter naming the UK as a potential venue, but have yet to progress their plans.
Hungary is understood to have been an attractive location for BYD because it is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative - a policy which aims to bolster the country's global industrial presence with large-scale investments and trade agreements.
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