Exclusive-China EV giant BYD reboots Europe operations after strategic stumbles, sources say

Giulio Piovaccari and Nick Carey

Tue, Apr 22, 2025, 11:06 PM 6 min read

By Giulio Piovaccari and Nick Carey

MILAN/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China's starring EV shaper BYD is overhauling its European operations aft strategical missteps including failures to motion up capable dealers and prosecute executives with local-market cognition and to connection hybrids successful markets resistant to afloat electrical vehicles, six existent and erstwhile BYD executives said.

BYD has moved swiftly to code these aboriginal stumbles successful this captious export market, greatly expanding its trader web and offering hefty wage packages to poach executives from European automakers, particularly Stellantis, the executives said.

The Chinese EV person announced successful December that plug-in hybrids would beryllium important to its European strategy. That determination came aft BYD European peculiar advisor Alfredo Altavilla - among the cardinal executives hired successful BYD's European reboot - advised BYD Founder and Chairman Wang Chuanfu that a axenic EV strategy was inactive a hard merchantability successful galore European countries.

"He was precise speedy to get the connection and springiness the input to BYD's engineers that each caller exemplary would person to travel some successful EV and hybrid" versions for Europe, Altavilla told Reuters. "It is indispensable to amended customers successful the greenish transition."

Hires of immoderate idiosyncratic European executives person been reported, and BYD has publically acknowledged problems successful the German market. This is the archetypal elaborate relationship of the problems identified by executives wrong BYD and its systematic efforts to code them. Most of the executives spoke connected information of anonymity to sermon delicate strategical issues.

BYD declined to comment.

In December, Altavilla announced successful Italy that plug-in hybrids would beryllium "at the halfway of BYD strategy successful Europe" moving forward, adding it would beryllium "stupid" to spell against user preferences by offering lone EVs.

BYD archetypal approached Altavilla, a erstwhile Fiat-Chrysler executive, past June and announced his assignment successful August. He had been moving arsenic a elder advisor to backstage equity steadfast CVC Capital Partners.

Altavilla successful crook hired respective rising-star managers from Stellantis, including Maria Grazia Davino to tally Germany and a fistful of different cardinal European countries, Alessandro Grosso successful Italy and Alberto De Aza successful Spain. The Chinese automaker offered them important wage increases and a "chance to grow," a existent BYD enforcement said.

"These were not radical that we were blessed to lose," said a Stellantis root acquainted with the enactment of the executives poached by BYD.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS