BYD considering Mexico EV plant as path to U.S. car market

The Chinese EV maker is considering opening a plant in Mexico, BYD Mexico manager Zhou Zou told Nikkei Asia. Zou continued that international car brands needed to have overseas production, and that Mexico was a market ripe for growth.

He did not reveal the locations that BYD is considering, but the EV maker is negotiating with national and local governments over a location, Nikkei Asia reports.

BYD isn’t the first Chinese carmaker to explore setting up shop in Mexico. JAC Group and MG Motor, owned by Shanghai-based SAIC, already have operations in the country. JAC operates an assembly plant through a joint venture with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, while MG has a parts distribution centre in central Mexico.

SAIC is also reportedly planning to invest $1.5 billion to $2 billion to build a factory in Mexico. Chery, another Chinese company, is also interested in expanding production in Mexico.

BYD has already announced several new facilities outside of China. In Asia, the company is eyeing a $1.3 billion investment to set up an electric vehicle factory in Indonesia, and is also expected to start production in Thailand this year. The company has also chosen Hungary and Brazil as manufacturing bases for the European and Latin American markets.

Why Mexico?

There are two reasons why Mexico is appealing to BYD and Chinese EV makers more generally.

Mexican consumers are increasingly buying Chinese-made vehicles; cars from China account for about a fifth of the Mexican car market. The Latin American country was the second-most-popular…