2023-12-22 16:37:00
First European factory for the Chinese manufacturer BYD. The Chinese automobile giant announced this Friday the construction of a passenger car manufacturing plant in Hungary. A first for the manufacturer, which has wanted to attack the European electric market for several years. The construction of a factory will allow BYD cars to benefit from the French government’s famous ecological bonus, intended precisely to counter imports of cars from the Middle Kingdom.
« BYD to build its first passenger car factory in Szeged, Hungary, marking a significant step towards green mobility in Europe », declared BYD Europe on its social network account X (formerly Twitter). Located in the south of the country, the city has around 160,000 inhabitants.
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Breakthrough into the European market
With the new automobile factory, the group “ hopes to accelerate the entry of new energy passenger vehicles into the European market, further deepen its global presence, and actively promote the green transformation of global energy infrastructure “, he indicated. The factory will be built in stages and should create thousands of jobs on site, said BYD, which however did not give the opening date of the site, nor the amount of its investment.
Elle « will be one of the most important investments in the history of the Hungarian economy », welcomed Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in a press release, without giving a precise figure.
Hungary, home to Chinese manufacturers
BYD is already present in Hungary, notably with an electric bus factory. The country is set to become a major producer of batteries for electric vehicles – the second in Europe following Germany – with a huge factory also planned by a Chinese group, CATL.
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In Hungary, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s long-standing policy of “look east” has allowed Asian companies to benefit from tax breaks, infrastructure subsidies and job creation to attract them.
Last October, the Hungarian Prime Minister also met the founder of BYD, Wang Chuanfu. On numerous occasions, Viktor Orban has shown himself favorable to the project of “ new silk roads » Chinese, the principle of which is to connect commercial partnerships and the construction of Chinese infrastructure in favorable countries. With this future factory on European territory, BYD also finds a solution to circumvent the trade barriers put in place by Europe to contain Chinese imports.
BYD, the Chinese electric champion
BYD (« Build Your Dreams ”, build your dreams) is one of the most prominent electric vehicle brands in China. The group, which counts Warren Buffett among its shareholders, this month became the first global manufacturer to cross the symbolic threshold of 5 million electric vehicles produced.
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Originally specializing in the design and manufacture of batteries, the firm diversified into automobiles from 2003. BYD stopped production of gasoline cars last year and now focuses exclusively on models hybrid and electric. Many foreign manufacturers (Tesla, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Toyota, Ford, etc.) now depend on BYD for their batteries.
According to its latest figures, BYD sold 1.86 million electrified vehicles last year. In this volume, 911,000 vehicles using a fully electric engine were sold. According to some analysts, the Chinese brand might soon take over the place of the American Tesla as number one in 100% electric automobiles.
Tensions with the EU
According to a study by Jato Dynamics, in the electric niche, the market share of Chinese manufacturers has increased 12-fold in Europe since 2019, to reach 6.2% in 2023. And, in the first half of this year, China became the world’s largest exporter of cars, overtaking Japan for the first time.
The growing success of Chinese electric vehicle companies in overseas markets is causing friction as the sector in China has benefited from decades of subsidies from Beijing in related technology areas. The European Union this year announced an investigation into these subsidies, citing unfair competition. By opening this investigation, the EU is attempting a difficult challenge: to show its muscles without irritating Beijing too much and to reduce its commercial dependence without breaking with the Asian giant.
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