Hungary – After the Hungarian press began raising the possibility at the beginning of November, it seems increasingly likely that the Chinese leader in electric vehicles will open a third plant in Hungary.

A third BYD plant in Hungary?

In fact, the Chinese car manufacturer BYD is not really a newcomer to the country, where it has been producing electric buses at a plant in Komárom (on the Slovak border) since 2017, and already announced this summer that it would soon open a battery assembly plant in Fót (a northern suburb of Budapest).

This third plant would be located in the Szeged region (Hungary’s third largest city, in the south-east of the country), while BYD has already opened two dealerships in Budapest in which the carmaker intends to offer three models from the outset.

Szijjártó announced a 60 billion forint government programme while in China

The Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó, visited China in October and announced the forthcoming launch of a 60 billion forint Hungarian government programme (158 million euros) to support the spread of electric vehicles and develop the recharging network: „The electric car industry will replace the traditional car industry, whether we like it or not, that’s a fact and it can’t be changed. The question is whether it wants to be at the forefront of Hungary or lagging behind. […] We want to be in the vanguard because, by doing so, we will make Hungary and the Hungarian economy even stronger, and we will create more and more jobs for the Hungarian people.”

Orbán visited BYD in Shenzhen

On 4 November, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported that the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had also visited BYD in Shenzhen during his last trip to China for the New Silk Road summit. There he has been welcomed by Wang Chuanfu, Chairman and CEO of BYD.

Tesla’s biggest competitor

Originally a battery manufacturer based in Shenzhen (in southern China), BYD, founded in 1995, bought out a car company on the verge of bankruptcy in 2003, enabling it to become China’s fourth biggest car brand by 2010, while today it is the biggest brand of electric vehicles in the Middle Kingdom and is already considered as Tesla’s biggest competitor.
Its advertising slogan is „Build Your Dreams”… What a programme!

There’s a slight downside to BYD, however… the company was criticised by China Labor Watch in 2011 (12 years ago) for its deplorable working conditions and abnormally low wages.