BYD wants to acquire an existing factory rather than build from scratch for its second European EV plant, a company executive said, signaling a faster route to local production capacity on the continent.

The Chinese automaker already operates its first European plant in Szeged, Hungary. A takeover of an existing facility would let BYD add capacity without the multi-year construction timeline of a greenfield project, and would likely reopen a site that another manufacturer has closed or is preparing to close.

The executive's comments, reported by Yahoo Finance UK, frame the plan as an intention rather than a confirmed transaction. No target site, purchase price, capacity figure or timeline has been disclosed. BYD has not named candidate plants, and any deal would still need to clear regulatory review — a growing hurdle for Chinese investment in European manufacturing.

For European suppliers, a brownfield acquisition cuts both ways. BYD would inherit a workforce and, potentially, an established local supply base. But Chinese OEMs moving into Europe have historically brought Tier 1 partners with them, and there is no indication yet how much of an acquired plant's existing vendor network would survive the transition to BYD's platforms and processes.

The strategy itself is well established in the region. Toyota took over a former GM plant in Valenciennes, France. Tesla converted the former NUMMI site in Fremont, California — the template most often cited when automakers discuss brownfield entries. In Europe today, several large plants sit idle or run well below capacity following the industry's EV slowdown and restructuring wave, giving BYD no shortage of potential targets across Germany, France, Italy and the UK.

What separates this from ordinary market chatter is who said it. A named executive confirming the acquisition route signals that BYD's European expansion planning has moved beyond the study phase, even if the company has not yet committed capital to a specific site.

What to watch next: which plant BYD approaches, whether any European government signals willingness to approve a Chinese takeover of a national auto asset, and whether the Szeged plant's ramp-up gives the company the volume base to justify a second site at all.