China's Changan plans European factory, executive says

By Nick Carey

LONDON (Reuters) -Chinese automaker Changan plans a European factory to support its future sales on the continent and is already weighing up possible locations for the plant, an executive told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We're committed to being in Europe, making in Europe for Europe," said Nic Thomas, Changan's European head of marketing, sales and service, during a test drive of the automaker's electric Deepal S07 SUV at an event outside London. "We're working on local manufacturing solutions here."

Thomas said he could not discuss timing for a European assembly plant but said "we already believe we're going to hit the (sales) volume, so we're already in the planning stages."

Changan said in March that it plans to enter 10 markets across Europe this year with electric vehicle models.

Thomas, who also runs Changan's UK operations, said the automaker will start selling the Deepal S07 to British consumers this year, with deliveries starting in September.

In 2024, Changan was the world's No. 16 automaker with sales of just over 2.2 million vehicles, according to car industry analyst Felipe Munoz.

Thomas said Changan sold 600,000 cars outside China last year and this year aims to increase that 1 million vehicles.

Changan joins a number of other Chinese automakers that have already launched sales in Europe, including BYD and Chery. 

The European Union has imposed tariffs on Chinese-made EVs, but both BYD and Chery have already announced plans for local car production. BYD is building an EV plant in Hungary and Chery will build cars in Spain with local joint venture partner Ebro.

Earlier on Wednesday, Chinese automaker Geely said it was launching its Geely brand in Britain and its first vehicle to go on sale in the country will be its electric EX5 SUV.

(Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Daniel Wallis)