BYD Starts Building Electric Car Battery Factory in Vietnam

KatadataOTO - BYD continues to invest in several Southeast Asian countries. Most recently, the Chinese automotive giant officially builds a battery factory electric cars in Vietnam.

The manufacturer has partnered with the Vietnamese manufacturing industry, namely Kim Long Motors.

For information, Kim Long Motors is a private automotive manufacturer in Vietnam that focuses on research, assembly, and sales of commercial vehicles including buses and trucks.

No small amount, BYD is investing 130 million USD or about IDR 2.1 trillion, a major step in expanding their business in Southeast Asia.

Photo: BYD

The partnership is known to have started on January 27, 2026. The Vietnamese government confirmed the facility will focus on supplying batteries for electric-powered commercial vehicles.

In the first phase, construction is carried out for a facility covering 4.4 hectares with an annual production capacity of up to three gigawatt-hours (GWh).

The batteries will focus on supplying commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks. Then in the second phase there will be an expansion up to six hectares.

Thus, the plant will eventually be able to supply batteries for passenger Electric Vehicles (EV) on a total land area of 10 hectares with an annual capacity of six GWh.

"Several reports indicate that Kim Long Motors will bear the construction costs, while BYD offers comprehensive technical support. However, this information has not been confirmed by BYD," wrote the Carnewschina report quoted on Thursday (Jan 29).

There are several factors believed to be the reasons BYD chose Vietnam as the battery plant location.

Such as the explosive growth in eco-friendly vehicle sales. For illustration, EV sales were 4,040 units in 2022 and reached 79,800 units in 2024.

Photo: BYD

However, in the first 11 months of 2025, sales of electric and hybrid cars grew significantly by about 160,000 units, capturing a market share of around 38.5 percent.

Meanwhile in Indonesia, BYD is committed to building an electric car assembly facility. Their target is for the plant to operate starting this year.

Previously, all BYD electric car models entering Indonesia were assisted by an imported electric vehicle incentive scheme, making their prices competitive even though they are still Completely Built Up (CBU) or fully imported.