Chinese automobile manufacturer BYD is establishing Europe’s first electric bus factory in Komárom with an investment of 6.2 billion HUF, towards which the Hungarian government is providing a grant of 925 million HUF.
Péter Szijjártó, minster of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that production is expected to begin early next year, the plant will initially produce 200 buses a year and the world leader on the electric bus market will create 300 new jobs in two phases.
According to the minister, the production of electric buses will both improve competitiveness and contribute to enabling Hungary to achieve its global climate policy goals.
According to Szijjártó, the question of who will be competitive in the new industrial era based on digitalization, automated transport development and electro-mobility, is being decided now.
“Hungary was successful in the previous, fundamentally manufacturing industrial era, and is in first place within the region with respect to the ratio of foreign working capital investment to economic performance," he said.
“In the new industrial era there is not only competition for Western capital, but also for capital from the East. More and more companies from the Far East are searching for new European locations to place their production capacities”, he added.
“Today is an important success in the battle to attract capital investment from the East; a global corporation that employs 210 thousand people has not only brought its production capacity to Hungary, but also is research & development division," the minister added.
Chinese-Hungarian economic cooperation is developing extremely well and Chinese investment in Hungary now exceeds 3.5 billion USD.
“Bilateral trade gained further momentum this year; Hungarian exports to China increased by 20 percent during the first seven months of the year, with the automotive industry being the major contributing sector in addition to the food industry," the minister said.