the shenzhen-based electric vehicle manufacturer byd opened its first european e-bus factory in the northern hungarian town of komarom on tuesday, according to a press release from the company.
byd's investment in the factory will total up to 20 million euros (us$21 million) in the coming three years. currently, there are 32 employees in the factory, but the company plans to employ around 300 people — most of them locally recruited hungarians with a technical background — to assemble up to 400 e-buses a year on two shifts.
in addition to producing electric buses and coaches, the factory will also manufacture electric forklift trucks and light commercial vehicles. the factory is expected to deliver up to 40 vehicles by the end of this year, which will be exported to customers across continental europe.
the hungary plant will also produce bus chassis for byd's british partner adl — a leading coach and bus manufacturer in the u.k. — and the newly announced byd e-bus assembly factory in france.
"we are very pleased that byd, a major chinese multinational on the cutting edge of new automotive technology, has chosen hungary as the location for its first fully owned bus plant in europe," said peter szijjarto, hungarian minister of foreign affairs and trade, during the factory's opening ceremony.
duan jielong, chinese ambassador to hungary, said that he hoped byd’s investment project could achieve mutual benefits and common development in order to move forward the bilateral cooperation between china and hungary in the automotive industry.
china's investment in hungary has reached us$4.1 billion covering industries such as chemistry, financing, communications, logistics and automotive, duan added.
isbrand ho, managing director of byd europe, said that byd chose hungary, and komarom specifically, for its new factory because of the city's central location and its long tradition of engineering excellence.
"also we are very conscious of the strong heritage of bus making in the immediate area. now the government is reinforcing that industry and we are proud to be at the forefront of that movement," he said.
for the shenzhen-based carmaker, this 66,000-square-meter plant is just the first of a series of european production facilities that it is planning. the factory's opening follows an announcement just two weeks ago that the company acquired an 80,000-square-meter site for an e-bus assembly factory in beauvais, north of paris.
