BYD should confirm the construction of an assembly plant in Hungary
- Chinese automaker BYD has announced it is in final negotiations with the Hungarian government to build an electric car assembly plant. BYD plans to produce electric cars and batteries at a factory in Szeged, in the south of the country. Remember that BYD already has an electric bus factory in Hungary (Komarom) but the company wants to set up another factory (much larger) to produce electric cars on a large scale and become the largest producer of electric vehicles in Europe, with a goal of selling one in ten electric cars sold in Europe by 2030 (i.e. approximately 500,000 units).
- Hungary has seen battery carmakers set up on its territory for some time. The establishment of BYD in the country only strengthens the presence of the Chinese in Hungary.
- BYD has quickly become the second largest producer of BEVs in the world (behind Tesla) and the first in China, a market in which it will become the sales leader for all engines combined, ahead of the Volkswagen group and the GM group. BYD thus sold 2,683,374 vehicles in China over the first 11 months of 2023, a figure compared to 2,723,854 sales of the Volkswagen group and 2,091,368 sales of the GM group (including Wuling). But while VW and GM are down compared to 2022, BYD is growing.
- BYD had indicated a few months ago that it wanted to establish itself industrially in Europe, because this market is supposed to become fully electrified in 2035 and recent measures aimed at increasing the price of Chinese cars in several European countries have only encourages this decision. BYD will now follow its great rival Tesla in Europe, which has a factory there that can already produce 500,000 vehicles per year.