BYD Eyes Washington Summit Slot While France and Spain Lead Race for Second European Plant
Published on 09/17/2026 at 16:31 | Editorial boerse-global.de
BYD founder Wang Chuanfu has emerged as a possible member of the Chinese business delegation accompanying President Xi Jinping to Washington for a September 24 summit with US President Donald Trump, according to a Bloomberg report published Wednesday. Senior Chinese officials, including Xi's chief of staff Cai Qi, are said to be weighing a shortlist of corporate leaders for the state visit.
The mere prospect of BYD's inclusion carries outsized symbolism. The automaker has been effectively locked out of the US market by tariffs exceeding 100 percent, so any dialogue on market access between the world's two largest economies would touch directly on the company's most glaring geographic gap.
Investors wasted no time responding. The stock climbed 4.4 percent on Thursday to EUR 9.13, a sharp one-day move that nonetheless leaves the shares deep in negative territory over a longer horizon. Over twelve months the equity has shed 26 percent, and since the start of the year it is down 15 percent. The 52-week high of EUR 12.49, set on October 2 last year, remains 27 percent away.
Technical Picture Still Fragile
The rally has done little to repair the broader chart. The shares continue to trade below their 50-day moving average of EUR 9.74, suggesting the positive impulse has yet to take hold. An RSI of 43.6 points to a market that is neither overheated nor particularly confident — one that is only now regaining its footing after a weak prior month that saw a 6.8 percent decline.
What the jump does reveal is how tightly coiled sentiment has become around any hint of a thaw in the US-China trade standoff.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying BYD?
European Plant Race Narrows
On the industrial front, BYD's European ambitions are coming into sharper focus. Alfredo Altavilla, the company's special adviser for Europe, told audiences in Turin on Wednesday and Venaria on Thursday that Italy now ranks only as a "Plan B" for a second assembly plant, with France and Spain the preferred candidates and a decision due by year-end.
Altavilla sketched a far more expansive continental footprint than previously disclosed: three assembly plants and a battery factory over the long term. The first site, in Szeged, Hungary, is already ramping up production. For the second, BYD would rather take over or convert an existing facility than build from scratch. Talks with Stellantis over its Grugliasco plant near Turin went nowhere — the site is "not for sale" and now stands entirely empty.
Spain's case rests on market momentum: battery-electric vehicles accounted for 9.6 percent of Spanish registrations in July, a segment BYD leads. The buildout of local supplier infrastructure, including the large CATL-Stellantis battery plant in Zaragoza, adds to the appeal. France, for its part, offers access to one of the EU's largest car markets. Italy, by Altavilla's account, simply failed on competitiveness, despite ongoing talks about possible incentives.
For shareholders, the siting question is more than industrial-policy trivia. A second and eventually third EU plant would help BYD cut import duties and logistics costs — an advantage that gains weight as trade tensions between China and the West persist. Beyond Europe, the company is also scouting electric bus, vehicle assembly and battery projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world's largest cobalt producer.
August Sales and Overseas Targets
The operational picture remains sturdy even as the share price sags under a price war in China. BYD sold 440,293 new energy vehicles worldwide in August, up 17.84 percent year-on-year and 5.03 percent above July. Overseas deliveries surged 134 percent, while battery-electric vehicles hit a monthly record of 256,230 units, a 28.38 percent year-on-year gain.
Citing a Nikkei report, BYD looks set to exceed its full-year overseas target of just under two million vehicles. For 2027, the company has set an even bolder goal: 2.5 million units sold outside China.
That overseas push doubles as a release valve. China's auto industry carries manufacturing capacity exceeding 55 million vehicles a year, well above domestic demand — overcapacity that makes foreign markets strategically vital, with Europe among the key growth theaters.
The stock was quoted at EUR 8.99 in recent trading, roughly 28 percent below its 52-week high, though it added 2.8 percent during the session. Whether Wang's possible place at the Washington table translates into concrete progress on market access is the question investors will keep weighing. Until the September 24 summit, the shares are likely to stay highly sensitive to any shift in the diplomatic calendar.
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