Restarting idle facilities

In many cases, Chinese carmakers' overseas manufacturing also means helping traditional automakers in mature markets address declining utilization rates.

BYD's Brazilian plant was built on a former Ford site covering 4 million square meters.

Great Wall Motor, China's largest SUV and pickup maker, saw its first Brazilian factory in Sao Paulo open in August 2025 on a site acquired from Daimler AG. The plant produces three models — the Haval H6 and H9 SUVs, and the Power P30 pickup — with an initial annual capacity of 50,000 units.

Ricardo Bastos, director of institutional affairs at GWM Brasil, said GWM is exploring several states for a potential second factory, either consolidating existing resources into a larger facility or building a new plant from scratch, with a final decision expected after mid-2026.

Chery partnered with Spain's EV Motors to revive a former Nissan plant and collaborate with local brand Ebro, achieving its first localized European production by the end of 2024.

Geely and Ford are in discussions about using spare production capacity at Ford's European plants to manufacture vehicles for the region.

Ford's European sales fell from 518,000 units in 2023 to 327,000 units in the first three quarters of 2025, according to Statista.

A person familiar with the matter told China Daily that Ford's plant in Spain, which has been operating since 1976, is the most likely facility to be involved. Reuters also reported that the two companies discussed a framework for sharing vehicle technologies, including automated driving.

In response to an inquiry from China Daily, Ford said: "We have discussions with lots of companies all the time on a variety of topics. Sometimes they materialize, sometimes they don't."

Geely has already adopted similar approaches through partnerships with Renault in South Korea and Brazil, producing vehicles based on Geely technologies using Renault's factories and sales networks.

The Financial Times reported in late January that China's Chery Automobile and Jaguar Land Rover may also discuss producing vehicles in the UK using one of JLR's existing plants.

The United Kingdom has been actively courting Chery to make its vehicles in the country for the last few years, said the FT, citing three people close to the talks.

A new JLR deal with Chery will be crucial for the UK government to achieve its target for the UK to produce 1.3 million vehicles annually by 2035, almost double the 738,000 units forecast by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders for 2025.

Chery, together with Omoda and Jaecoo, took a 2.7 percent share last year in Europe's second-largest vehicle market from near zero in 2024, according to the society.

The group said the first models under its Lepas brand will hit the market in the UK in the next few months.