Hungary wants to become the European center for battery production
Hungary plans $2 billion worth of infrastructure investments in its second, in a bid to become one of Europe's major battery and electric vehicle manufacturing hubs.
Hungary will invest 700 billion HUF, or about $2 billion, to improve road and transport infrastructure, and water and waste management in and around Debrecen, the country's second largest city after the capital Budapest, Hungarian Housing Minister Janos Lazar said during a press briefing on Tuesday, as reported by Bloomberg .
The Hungarian minister added that the infrastructure investments will be in addition to direct subsidies to companies with factories in the region, including BMW and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL).
In 2022, CATL said it would invest $8.1 billion (7.34 billion euros) to build a 100 GWh battery plant in Debrecen, CATL's second battery plant in Europe after a production plant in Germany. CATL's project involved the supply of cells and modules to European car manufacturers.
The BMW Group, for its part, has announced the construction of a high-voltage battery assembly for NEUE KLASSE vehicles at its Debrecen site in Hungary in 2022.
BMW plans to create more than 500 additional jobs and invest more than $2.2 billion (2 billion euros) in the construction and start-up of the entire plant by the end of 2025.
Hungary is also attracting electric vehicle manufacturers from outside the EU. BYD, China's top electric vehicle maker, said last month it will build its first European manufacturing plant in Hungary. The plant will be built near the southern city of Szeged and is expected to create thousands of jobs, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said.
The plant “will be one of the largest investments in Hungarian economic history,” the minister said, underlining that the Hungarian government will provide financial incentives to BYD for the construction of the plant. In the end, Hungary is the European country with a vision most consistent with the prospect of electrification of mobility and which therefore invests to be at the forefront in the construction of an essential element for this solution: batteries.
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new Economic Scenarios articles.
The article Hungary wants to become the European center for battery production comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/llungheria-vuole-diventare-il-centro-europea-per-la-produzione-delle-batterie/ on Wed, 10 Jan 2024 06:20:03 +0000.