Grilled by an unexpected country, Europe sees Byd producing its electric cars elsewhere

The Chinese manufacturer byd, world number one of electric vehicles, will not first go through Europe for its first lines of assembly outside China. It is in Pakistan, near Karachi, that the brand will locally produce its EV and Phev models in July 2026. A pragmatic decision, which reflects the industrial priorities of a group that has become master in the art of bypassing Western regulatory slowness.

Before Europe, byd will bet on Pakistan to assemble its electric cars

The BYD factory in Pakistan will not be a promise, but a fact. According to Reuterslocal production will begin in the summer of 2026, in a joint venture between the Pakistani conglomerate Mega Motor Company and Byd. The agreement, signed in discretion, provides an initial capacity of 25,000 vehicles per year, in double post, with a progressive rise in load. Vehicles will be assembled from kits imported from China, with some non -critical parts produced locally.

Why this choice? Because Pakistan checks all the boxes in a timely market: a young population, infrastructure to be built, and above all a favorable state. In January 2025, Islamabad reduced electricity rates by 45 % for charging stations, just to energize an electrification still embryonic. Immediate result: BYD sales, however 100 % imported at this stage, have exceeded the internal objectives in the first half by 30 %.

But the bet exceeds Pakistani borders. Thanks to its driving on the right, the country also serves as a springboard to other compatible markets: East Africa, Southeast Asia, even Oceania … and this without quotas, punitive customs or Eurocratic standards which always slow down the ambitions of BYD on the old continent.

Meanwhile, in Europe, The factory project in Hungary – announced with great fanfare at the end of 2023 – has still not crossed the foundations stadium. Not a single European vehicle produced before … at the end of 2026, at best. Byd did not close the door to Europe, but it has clearly chosen to go where you can produce quickly, at a lower cost.