BYD confirms Tanjong Malim plant will not proceed, local assembly plans remain

KUALA LUMPUR: BYD has confirmed that its proposed assembly facility in Tanjong Malim will not proceed, but the carmaker says this does not mean it is abandoning plans to locally assemble vehicles in Malaysia.

Speaking to the media, BYD Malaysia Managing Director Jacob Ma addressed the long-running question surrounding the company’s Malaysian CKD plans, confirming that BYD is now in conversations with an established local assembly partner instead.

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“To clear the air on this, the Tanjong Malim facility will not proceed,” Ma said.

He was quick to stress, however, that the decision only affects the original facility and not BYD’s wider plans for local production.

“Our commitment to local assembly remains,” he said.

According to Ma, BYD is currently working with an established local CKD partner that has the capacity and capabilities required to support its local assembly operations.

Discussions between the two sides are already at a very advanced stage, with the necessary documentation currently being finalised. BYD will make an official announcement once everything is in place.

For now, Ma declined to reveal the identity of the company involved.

The latest development represents a change from BYD’s original Malaysian manufacturing plan. In August 2025, the company announced plans to establish its own assembly facility in Tanjong Malim, with operations initially expected to begin in 2026.

What has changed now is the way BYD intends to go about local assembly.

Rather than establishing the previously announced Tanjong Malim facility, the company will work with an existing Malaysian assembly partner.

Ma said BYD has also been engaging with local vendors as it looks at how the company can become part of the existing Malaysian automotive ecosystem.

“We want to see how we can work with them and become part of the existing ecosystem,” he said.

Despite the change in strategy, Ma stressed that BYD’s broader intentions for Malaysia have not changed.

The company continues to view Malaysia as an important market and a strategic part of BYD’s future growth, even if individual plans, locations and strategies evolve along the way.

“We will continue to invest,” Ma said, adding that BYD intends to grow alongside the Malaysian market.

The company has yet to reveal when local assembly will begin, which models will be assembled here or where the new CKD operation will be located.

It has also stopped short of naming its local assembly partner.

There is, however, one obvious possibility. BYD representatives visited Sime Motors’ Inokom assembly facility in Kulim earlier this year, while Sime Motors representatives have also subsequently met with BYD in China.

Neither company has confirmed that Inokom will become BYD’s Malaysian contract assembler, so for now that remains speculation.

What is official is that BYD’s original Tanjong Malim plan is no longer happening.

Its Malaysian CKD plans, however, are still very much alive — just under a different arrangement.

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