BYD has already decided in which country it will open its first electric vehicle plant in Europe

The Chinese automotive giant intends to announce shortly the location of what will be its first electric vehicle production plant on the old continent. Although this information is still secret for the moment, some German media outlets indicate that BYD has already decided that its construction will take place in Hungary. If this is finally the case, it should not surprise us given that the company already has an electric bus production plant in this same Eastern European country.

Indeed, these same media outlets point out that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had already met with the head of BYD, Wang Chuanfu, to close the agreement. The construction of this plant will represent a further step forward for the Hungarian government in modernising the country and an important source of employment for its citizens.

Likewise, Hungary is a highly attractive option for BYD, with many advantages in its favour. Firstly, being a member of the European Union will allow the Chinese manufacturer to sell the output from this plant in the 27 countries that make up the bloc, without having to pay import duties. This is of vital importance in order to be competitive in the European market, all the more so when everything suggests that these duties could rise in the coming years for vehicles coming from China.

Hungary may end up being the gateway for Chinese manufacturers into Europe

But we must also not forget that Hungary has recently been receiving a significant flow of investment from China. To mention just one example, CATL, the world’s largest manufacturer of battery cells, has already begun construction of another plant in the country, in this case for the production of battery cells. The dimensions of this plant will also be considerable, with an annual production capacity that should reach 100 GWh.

BYD is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of plug-in vehicles, and the second largest of purely electric ones, only behind Tesla and by a narrow margin. All forecasts also point to it finally overtaking the American firm in 2024, as a result of its expansion into other markets such as Europe.