Altavilla (Byd): 'We have to see who among the car manufacturers will make it to 2035 alive'

Alfredo Altavilla made his debut as Byd Europe's Special Advisor at the Paris Motor Show, but at the Quattroruote Next conference he not only addressed a number of topics, starting with the ban on endothermic cars for 2035, but also took stock of the strategies of the manufacturer he now works for, Byd, prompted in part by the fact that no Stellantis representative was present at the event. He also explained the reasons why he chose Byd.

This is not the first time that Altavilla has worked with Chinese manufacturers after several years at the top of Fca, but he was impressed by Byd. He explains: 'I actually realised that it is a different manufacturer from the others, it is a tech company that is among the world's largest producers of photovoltaics. Moreover, it has been on the market for almost 30 years, it will celebrate them next 18 November, but it already has a million employees as well as 103 thousand engineers who develop 42 patents a day'.

For Altavilla, duties are of absolutely no use. 'In my professional life I have gone around the world presenting many investment projects. With duties, all investment activity stops. I hope that the measure will be revised in terms of both duration and amount because it is unthinkable that China will not react to the measures. For Byd, once the factory in Hungary is operational, the duties will no longer be a problem'.

The other aspect that has impressed Altavilla is Byd's speed in handling the car market. "From next year,' he explains, 'new car models designed for the European market will arrive, not least because Byd's objective is clear: with the two factories in Hungary and Turkey, it aims to make Europe self-sufficient in less than 18 months in terms of productivity. So we can no longer speak of Byd as a Chinese manufacturer, but as a European one'.

Not only cars designed for the European market. At Byd they are, in fact, working on the creation of a dealer network. 'We have started,' explains Altavilla, 'to invest in the capillarity of the network of both sales and service outlets in order to guarantee the same speed of delivery as our competitors. There are also many managers in Europe who switch to Byd. "If they move from established brands," explains Altavilla, "it means that they have accepted the challenge.