By Kate Yuan

(JW Insights) May 23 -- Chinese EV giant BYD is currently evaluating the feasibility of building a passenger car plant in Europe and is looking for a suitable site, a BYD spokesman told Chinese media Caijing.

A French government official recently said that BYD is in talks with French authorities about establishing a plant in France, according to French media outlet Les Echos.

BYD is also speeding up its overseas expansion in Southeast Asia. It announced recently plans to build an EV factory in Thailand, covering approximately 95 hectares with a planned annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles. That will be BYD's first overseas electric passenger car production plant.

There were also reports that BYD had plans to open a plant in Vietnam to produce car parts and components, with the aim to export them to an assembly plant planned in neighboring Thailand. The investment in northern Vietnam would exceed $250 million.

In addition, Spain and Germany are also trying to attract BYD to build plants locally. In April, it was reported that the Brazilian president promised to provide policy incentives for BYD to build an electric car plant in Bahia state.