The plant will have a maximum capacity of producing 150,000 cars a year.Continue reading
Series production will start this autumn at BMW’s Debrecen plant, which will give a huge boost to the Hungarian economy, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced in Budapest on Wednesday.
Following his talks with BMW executives, the Minister said that all the necessary buildings at the German automotive company’s Debrecen plant (eastern Hungary) had been built and the machines had arrived. All the obstacles have now been removed to the company’s first mass production of a model based on a pure electric platform this autumn.
The whole focus of BMW is now, without exaggeration, on Debrecen, because the success of the Debrecen plant is critical for the success of the whole group in this revolutionary period for the automotive industry, when virtually everything is about how quickly companies can switch to electric cars,”
Péter Szijjártó emphasized after talks with Milan Nedeljkovic, the member of the company’s board of directors responsible for production, and Hans-Peter Kemser, the plant manager in Debrecen.
“Thus, this autumn, series production will start at BMW’s Debrecen plant. This will of course give a huge boost to the Hungarian economy and a huge boost to Debrecen and the region,” the Minister underlined. In this context, he referred to the renewal of the region’s educational institutions, saying that
the eyes of the world are on the University of Debrecen and the local vocational training institutions to provide the right workforce for BMW.”
Péter Szijjártó pointed out that the German company already employs more than 2,000 people in Hungary, and as production ramps up, the number of employees will increase. “The Hungarian government has fulfilled all its commitments, and all the infrastructural developments in the fields of energy supply and transport that were necessary for the start-up of the factory have been completed,” he said. He added that what is still underway is the development of a container terminal, but that will be ready by September.
According to the Minister, the international environment was also touched upon at the meeting, noting that the European Union has recently taken a number of decisions that have damaged the competitiveness of the continent’s automotive industry. He cited as an example the tariffs imposed on the Chinese electric car industry, which have also caused serious problems for European manufacturers.
This is why Hungary supports the initiative of the car manufacturing companies to challenge the European Commission’s decision on these tariffs before the European Court of Justice,”
he confirmed.
“Hungary and BMW will continue to work closely together in the coming period on all issues affecting the competitiveness of the European automotive industry, as Hungary is one of the flagship countries of the European automotive industry, and the performance of the Hungarian economy is largely determined by the performance of the automotive industry,” the Foreign Minister concluded.
Via MTI, Featured photo via Facebook/BMW Group Gyár Debrecen
