Recently, according to Portuguese media "Expresso", BYD is working with the Portuguese government and the Portuguese Trade and Investment Agency Negotiate investment and construction of battery factory in Portugal. Currently, BYD has not issued official confirmation on the project.
Reports show that the candidate site for this project is the former Galp refinery site in Matosinhos near Porto, with the plant covering an area of approximately 240 hectares. It is reported that the refinery has been shut down in 2021. The demolition work of the land is currently progressing, and the demolition and subsequent soil remediation operations are expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
The land is adjacent to the Port of Les Chauès and has good port logistics conditions. In addition, the Barroso lithium mine in northern Portugal plans to put into production in 2028. If the project is implemented, Can be supplied with lithium resources nearby, reduce raw material transportation costs.
Portuguese Economy Minister Manuel Castro Almeida confirmed to the outside world that the Portuguese government is carrying out "productive dialogue" with a Chinese car company on building a local factory, but did not name the company. The Matosinhos Municipal Government stated that it has not yet received formal notification of the project. Mayor Luísa Salgueiro said that this type of industrial investment will be a very popular project.
According to reported information, the battery factory is positioned as the battery supply hub of the Iberian Peninsula, mainly supporting BYD's potential Spanish vehicle project, improving the localized supply chain layout in Southern Europe, and responding to the EU's local manufacturing, trade and carbon-related rules and regulations.
Up to now, the total project investment, production capacity scale, production line type, and production schedule None have been disclosed to the public, there are still uncertainties in the project, and the follow-up will be subject to BYD’s official announcement.
At the industrial level, Portugal is actively building a European battery industry cluster. Previously,CALB has officially announced the completion of the Sines lithium battery project, with a planned investment of approximately 2.067 billion euros (approximately RMB 15.366 billion) and a production capacity of 15 GWh. The first batch of deliveries is expected to start in 2027, which can be expanded to 45 GWh in the future.
If the BYD project is successfully implemented, Portugal will have two large-scale Chinese-funded battery manufacturing projects. Local cell manufacturing in the EU may be a key step for companies to deal with EU carbon tariffs, countervailing investigations, and localized supply chains.
Source：EnergyTrend
