{"id":428143,"date":"2026-01-23T13:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/428143\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T13:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:57:08","slug":"why-byds-first-manufacturing-foothold-in-canada-was-a-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/428143\/","title":{"rendered":"Why BYD\u2019s first manufacturing foothold in Canada was a bust"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

TTC branded BYD K9M buses are seen at Toronto Transit Commission facility in Toronto, Thursday, Jan. 22.Cole Burston\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

With Canada opening the door slightly to Chinese electric passenger vehicles, Shenzhen-based carmaker BYD has been cited as one company that could benefit and be a potential investor in the sector. <\/p>\n

But the Chinese auto giant has already made one foray into vehicle manufacturing in Canada that ended poorly: an electric bus assembly plant in Newmarket, Ont., that closed its doors after a handful of years, a victim of quality issues and political tensions between Ottawa and Beijing.<\/p>\n

In 2019, BYD, now the world\u2019s largest EV maker, trumpeted the opening of a 45,000-square-foot bus assembly plant<\/a> in Newmarket, with a focus on producing an initial trial run of 10 electric buses for the Toronto Transit Commission \u2013 which would ultimately be the sum total of the plant\u2019s output. <\/p>\n

The Ontario plant was BYD\u2019s second in North America after a bus assembly facility in Lancaster, Calif., and the first bus rolled out the door the following year.<\/p>\n

Exclusive: Chinese carmaker Chery eyes expansion into the Canadian EV market<\/a><\/p>\n

Today the company\u2019s name is stripped from the building, which has since been sold, marking the end of what the company saw as a foothold for its expansion into Canada. <\/p>\n

Even in the U.S., where the company\u2019s California plant produces electric school buses, the BYD name, which stands for \u201cbuild your dreams,\u201d is gone. In 2022, the company\u2019s North American operations rebranded as RIDE, an acronym for \u201creal innovation delivered with excellence.\u201d <\/p>\n

The company retains a \u201chandful\u201d of employees in Canada, said Frank Girardot, RIDE\u2019s senior communications director. After the Newmarket facility completed the project for the TTC, it ceased operations, he said, declining to elaborate on the closing, or the status of any outstanding contracts. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s clear is that from early on, there were signs of quality issues with BYD\u2019s buses in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big problem the TTC had when they were running the BYD buses was getting parts,\u201d said Steve Munro, a Toronto transit watcher and blogger. \u201cBYD didn\u2019t have the whole supply chain that you\u2019d expect anybody in the automotive industry would have to service people who own their product.\u201d <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Replacement parts and language issues were among the challenges with the BYD buses, according to a 2022 TTC report.Cole Burston\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The TTC documented the challenges posed by the vehicles in a 2022 report<\/a>, which stated it was extremely difficult to obtain replacement parts. According to the report, it took BYD 73 days to source a replacement rear axle for one bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cBYD has not provided sufficient engineering support on site and remotely,\u201d the report stated. \u201cRepair manuals and procedures are of poor quality and BYD\u2019s diagnostic tool is currently not available in English.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other municipalities that acquired BYD buses faced similar problems. <\/p>\n

In 2017, St. Albert, Alta., became the first municipality in Canada to add long-range electric buses to its transit fleet, eventually buying a total of seven BYD buses by the following year. The vehicles were built at the California plant.<\/p>\n

However, in 2023, the city revealed three of the seven vehicles required full battery replacements within the first five years of operation, while all seven required replacement of propulsion components like drive motors and gearboxes, according to the St. Albert Gazette<\/a>. The battery replacements each took 80 days to complete.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Montreal\u2019s transit authority bought four buses from BYD in 2018 and 2019 that were never put into use because the battery range proved to be insufficient and the buses were not suitable for customers with reduced mobility, according to Am\u00e9lie R\u00e9gis, a spokesperson for Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de transport de Montr\u00e9al. The buses are now used for day camps and corporate contracts.<\/p>\n

Ted Dowling, the Canadian executive who served as vice-president of BYD Canada at the time, but who left the company in 2022, acknowledges that \u201cat the start the buses had some issues, but if you talk to the TTC and other operators they\u2019re very happy with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an e-mail, TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said because the BYD buses have a charging system that is incompatible with its infrastructure they are all in storage, while the transit agency tries to find new homes for them.<\/p>\n

Rising tensions between Canada and China compounded BYD\u2019s struggles in Canada, Mr. Dowling said, citing Beijing\u2019s detention of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. <\/p>\n

The pandemic also presented challenges, he said, though with the TTC order completed, BYD shifted gears at the facility in 2020 and used it to instead make and store personal protective equipment for the Ontario and federal governments. <\/p>\n

Doug Ford says Canadians should boycott Chinese-made EVs<\/a><\/p>\n

A 2021 report from Ontario\u2019s auditor-general showed that as of Dec. 31, 2020, BYD Canada had received $24.6-million for PPE gear.<\/p>\n

Once Canada implemented a 100-per-cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles in 2024 and launched consultations about further duties, \u201cthat shut everything down\u201d in terms of BYD\u2019s interest in Canada, said Mr. Dowling, though by then he\u2019d left the company and the plant had closed. <\/p>\n

Now Canada\u2019s restrictions on Chinese EVs are lifting, with the federal government planning to allow 49,000 Chinese EVs to enter the market each year at a reduced tariff rate of 6.1 per cent. Part of the quota will be reserved for vehicles that cost less than $35,000.<\/p>\n

The beneficiaries of that, at least for the portion above $35,000, will likely be Tesla and Polestar, said Mr. Dowling. \u201cIf you think a big company like BYD is going to spend $10-million\u201d to adapt its vehicles for sale in Canada \u201cfor a market share of maybe 10,000 cars a year, it\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, BYD\u2019s Chinese rival Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. is positioning itself<\/a> to sell its EVs in Canada. <\/p>\n

There is the possibility BYD may eventually invest in auto production in Canada, but doing so would require BYD to build extensive capacity to service its vehicles, he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: TTC branded BYD K9M buses are seen at Toronto Transit Commission facility in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-428143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}