Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD has put on hold plans to build a factory in Turkey, delaying a planned $1 billion investment in the country, BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li told Reuters.
Li told Reuters in London that construction in the western province of Manisa has not begun and that the company has not set a timeline for moving forward.
BYD announced the investment in July 2024 under an agreement with Turkey’s Industry and Technology Ministry. The factory was expected to have an annual production capacity of 150,000 electric and plugin hybrid vehicles, create up to 5,000 jobs and begin production by the end of 2026.
“Right now our first priority is Hungary,” Li said, adding that BYD’s second priority is finding a suitable location for another factory in Europe.
The company is focusing on its plant in the Hungarian city of Szeged, where vehicle assembly is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026. The launch has been delayed by about a year compared to BYD’s earlier plans.
BYD has expanded its manufacturing footprint in Europe as the European Union imposes additional tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. Producing vehicles within the bloc would help the company reduce the impact of those duties and strengthen its position in the European market.
BYD sold about 188,000 vehicles in Europe last year, a 270 percent increase from the previous year, according to Reuters.
The Turkish government had presented the Manisa project as one of the largest foreign investments in the country’s automotive sector in recent years. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the signing ceremony for the agreement in İstanbul in July 2024.
Under the agreement BYD was exempted from Turkey’s additional 40 percent customs duty on Chinese vehicle imports and other import-related levies. The company expanded its sales network to 43 dealerships in 33 cities across Turkey and sold 45,537 vehicles in the country in 2025.
The suspension of the project drew criticism from opposition lawmaker Turhan Çömez of the İYİ (Good) Party, who said the government had granted BYD tax exemptions and other incentives to attract the investment but had yet to see construction begin on the planned factory.
In posts on X, Çömez said BYD had expanded vehicle sales in Turkey while prioritizing production in Hungary, arguing that the government’s investment strategy had failed.
Later on Wednesday, İYİ Party deputy chair and lawmaker Burak Dalgın submitted a parliamentary question asking Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır why BYD halted the project and whether the government would impose penalties if the company failed to meet its investment commitment.
Dalgın also asked how much BYD had gained from tariff exemptions while importing 26,610 vehicles during the last six months of 2025 and the first four months of 2026, and whether guarantees had been obtained from the company.
He sought information on the status of a separate plan by Chinese automaker Chery to build a factory in the Black Sea province of Samsun, including whether a binding agreement, timetable and guarantee mechanism were in place.
Turkey has previously seen major automotive investment projects abandoned. German automaker Volkswagen announced plans in 2019 to build a factory in the western province of Manisa but canceled the project the following year, citing the political situation and the decline in global vehicle demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.