Local production as the strategy

“For the long term, we will produce everything we sell in Europe here locally.”

The message is aimed at more than logistics. The EU is considering imposing tariffs on Chinese truck imports, after already imposing tariffs on Chinese passenger electric vehicles to limit dependence on Chinese infrastructure. Li’s position is that local output changes the political and operational equation:

“Once you move everything produced locally, it’s okay. We become a European company.”

That does not remove the near-term trade dispute. Li acknowledged the pressure directly:

“We don’t like this tariff because this did not benefit anybody, but we have to deal with it.”

The ETT 44 leads the charge

The flagship model is the ETT 44, a 4×2 tractor with a 651 kWh Blade Battery. BYD claims peak output of 1,000 PS and a range of up to 600km. Those figures put the truck squarely in the emerging European electric heavy-truck market, which already includes Daimler Truck’s eActros 600 and Volvo’s FH Electric.

Charging may be the sharper differentiator. BYD says its Megawatt Charging System can charge the truck from 20% to 80% in about 20 minutes. The company also points to scale at home: BYD has installed 10,000 of its 1,500kW passenger chargers in China. Its commercial vehicles already operate in over 100 countries and 400 cities.

Tesla is also expected to announce pricing and launch details for its Semi truck, keeping attention on whether early electric tractor demand rewards range, charging speed, cost, or infrastructure control.

Manufacturing footprint comes into focus

BYD’s most concrete European production anchor is its passenger-car plant in Szeged, Hungary, scheduled to begin mass production in 2027. Separately, BYD is in advanced talks to acquire a manufacturing site from Stellantis in Southern Europe.

The engineering takeaway is that BYD is not treating Europe as a simple export destination. It is pairing a high-output tractor, fast-charging claims, an installed charging base, and local manufacturing options before a truck-specific tariff regime is settled. Whether that is enough will depend on how Brussels writes the rules and how fleets judge uptime against incumbents.