Hungarian automotive industry: week 33 2022

According to press reports, China-based battery manufacturer EVE could build a new battery plant in Debrecen to supply BMW. The facility would be producing battery cells in 4680 format, a design that is currently used by Tesla.

The Audi Hungaria Tool Shop is under continued development with digital and automation solutions. Recently, the facility has introduced a gluing station supported by collaborative robots, and opened a new training centre.

Slovalco, Slovakia’s largest aluminium producer, is soon shutting down operation. The company, a supplier to a number of European corporations, has quoted sky-rocketing energy prices and the expensive nature of attaining emission certificates as key reasons.

Until the end of July this year, almost 500,000 used cars changed ownership in Hungary. This represents a 5.8 percent growth year on year, and projects an annual volume that will likely exceed last year’s record-breaking result.

In the second quarter, the volume of lease financing amounted to HUF 420 billion in Hungary, exceeding last year’s sum from the same period by 20 percent. Passenger cars, however, are not the main driver of growth.

Magyar Posta (Hungarian Post) has signed a fleet contract on the purchase of 771 electric scooters. This will increase the ratio of the postal service’s zero-emission vehicles to almost 25 percent of its entire fleet.

So far this year, a higher number of EVs have been sold in Romania than diesel vehicles. The former accounted for one fifth of total market volume, while the latter barely reached 14 percent.