The car manufacturer will double its production capacity in Kecskemét.Continue reading
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held a working lunch meeting with Ola Källenius, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, at the company’s headquarters in Stuttgart.
The meeting reviewed the Hungarian EU Presidency’s plans for European competitiveness and economic development, as well as the status of Mercedes’ ongoing investment, Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister’s press chief informed the press.
“Friendly match in Stuttgart in the morning. Meeting with the CEO of Mercedes-Benz. Live in the evening!,” the Prime Minister wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday, referring to the German-Hungarian football match that took place in Stuttgart that evening.
The meeting was also attended by Minister for National Economy Márton Nagy and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó. Following the talks with the Mercedes executives, Szijjártó reported on the details live on Facebook. He explained that this meeting took place at a time that will fundamentally determine the future of the automotive industry, as it is undergoing a revolutionary transformation, and now the only question is the speed of the electric transition.
This is a situation where not only automotive companies but also countries are competing for the opportunities, investments, and developments that will determine which countries will be the winners of the new era,”
he said.
“Over the past years, major companies in the world automotive industry have made a series of investment decisions that have led them to locate their investments in Hungary, which were also important from their point of view in the transition to the new electric automotive era,” he recalled. “Hungary is therefore well on the way to becoming one of the winners of this new automotive era,” the Minister claimed.
Szijjártó said that
Mercedes is currently investing HUF 600 billion (EUR 1.5 billion) in Hungary.
He believes that this will significantly increase the electric car production capacity in Kecskemét, and these developments will also result in Mercedes increasing the number of its employees in Hungary to 8-9,000. “This will be the car plant with the largest theoretical capacity in Hungary, and also the most complex, as they can produce conventional, hybrid, and electric vehicles at the same time,” he said.
The politician also pointed out that Mercedes’ investments go beyond themselves, as they also bring with them a continuous improvement in the quality of higher and secondary education in Hungary, as it was the first company to participate in a dual vocational training program in secondary education. “In addition, the expansion of Mercedes’ capacity is good news for the entire Hungarian corporate sector and the entire Hungarian economy, as 42 percent of Mercedes’ suppliers are Hungarian companies,” he pointed out.
Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda