Hungarian automotive industry: week 29 2020
Fotó: Daimler Media
Daimler to consider series of cost-cutting measures to retain competitiveness and financial stability. New agreements promoting electromobility signed, European new-car sales show substantial growth. Let’s recap what last week brought in Hungary and the region's automotive sector. Clicking on the highlighted items will open the full stories.
According to unconfirmed reports quoting internal sources, Daimler are currently considering severe cost-cutting measures, threatening to lay off 20,000 employees and resulting in the cancellation of the Kecskemét Mercedes-Benz plant’s expansion project.
The Mercedes-Benz plant in Kecskemét will shut down in a month’s time in August to perform scheduled maintenance tasks.
Supported by the Hungarian government, the Budapest University of Technology and Economics together with Knorr-Bremse Fékrendszerek Kft. will be working together to develop a digital environment supporting the testing of autonomous vehicles.
Similarly to Daimler, Volkswagen AG also appear to be unable to avoid the introduction of further cust-saving measures. VW have announced to halt the hiring of new employees until the end of the year.
Germany-based Continental are also preparing for optimizing costs, for reasons going beyond the coronavirus pandemic. In the years to come, the car maker is planning to close production units in Spain and Mexico.
Japan-based Nissan are reducing their production output by one-third this year to adapt to the declining demand caused by the global pandemic.
According to a UK-based automotive association, the country’s auto industry needs urgent intervention to survive the crisis.
Although new-car sales in the European Union are still falling short of the pre-pandemic volumes, June sales show a significant improvement from the previous months.
According to the latest data, similarly to the country’s auto industry, the entire Chinese economy is now on a rebound after the economic shock caused by the pandemic. In the second quarter of 2020, China’s GDP already showed year-on-year growth.
The Industry Days and Automotive Hungary trade exhibitions will be held simultaneously this year at Hungexpo. We interviewed exhibition director Csaba Vörös about why it is still worthwhile for automotive companies to exhibit in the current situation.
We took a look at some of the Industry 4.0-compliant automotive development projects currently under development at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Szeged.
