Hungarian automotive industry: week 41 2018 edition

Jabil has inaugurated a new logistics base at Tiszaújváros Business Park. The company has built a new warehouse and office facility, and added possibility to expand its floor area by another 2,500 square metres later on.

"The company is a global leader in the manufacturing of semiconductors. A traditional passenger car has 30 Infineon semiconductors on average. In an electric car, this number is two- or three folds. 8 out of 10 electric cars are fitted with Infineon semiconductors. "

"The cars manufactured in Hungary are certainly fitted with Infineon semiconductors, be it body parts, comfort equipment or drivetrain systems,” József Bodor, the Cegléd-based company’s CEO, told us in an interview.

The volume of motor vehicle parts manufacturing has decreased by 0.9 percent, while the production output of motor vehicles has seen a 13.1 percent drop.

QFD has held an event titled Regional Automotive Supplier Conference and Factory Visit for the seventh time this year.

The Forum for Trade Union Cooperation (SZEF) is looking to achieve significant wage hikes: they have handed in a proposal to increase minimum monthly wage to HUF 190,000 and minimum guaranteed pay to HUF 247,000 from January 1st.

An Industry 4.0 Sample Factory Road Show will be held between October 15th and 26th at 8 county seats, introducing know-how and technologies related to the fourth industrial revolution. Participants successfully obtaining a certificate at the end will be eligible for entering additional projects.

Workers at Audi Hungaria have been testing exoskeletons that improve workplace ergonomics: an “invisible” chair and a special pair of gloves assist workers in their everyday tasks.

“Digitalisation is promoting growth and innovation, leading to an economic competitive advantage. Those businesses who for some reason are unable to follow this trend will fall behind.

"Fortunately, more and more business executives are realising that sooner or later, digitalisation will become an essential asset, but it is evident that currently only large businesses have the financial and human resources required,” Beckhoff Automation Kft. CEO Tamás Perecz told us in an interview.

A survey analysing 25,000 trips done with 35,000 vehicles over a period of eight months between January and August 2018 have revealed that 47 percent never did more than 250 kilometres during one day.

This reflects the range that most electric cars on the market today are capable of with a single charge. In the survey period, only 1 percent of all trips done by the 53 percent of the cars surveyed were longer than 250 kilometres.

Audi Hungaria will dedicate a day to development engineers.

“The first love was the TT, a true hungaricum. It’ll always remain in the top three. But there is the RS, a wolf in a sheep’s clothing, and I also consider the Q3 beautiful.

"These are cars that are worth to get up for and work on. Launching a new model is a gigantic team effort. Our task is to work for the cars and our customers,” László Juhász, head of the Audi Hungaria assembly shop, told us in an interview.

After 12 years, Ivó Nemes has resigned as CEO of Kayser Automotive Hungária Kft.

“Since the beginning, our joint work has aimed at catering to industry needs and carrying out sustainable investments conforming to these requirements. We will open five new laboratories at the university, which will have a market-oriented and profit-focused operation.

"We have built a powertrain lab in collaboration with Siemens and a Smart Power energetics lab with MVM, while our Pharmatech lab is currently under construction at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering with the assistance of Richter. We have created a 5G testbed as part of a Nokia sub-project, which will be able to provide assistance in research focusing on 5G networks,” László Lengyel, deputy-head of the Department of Automation and Applied Informatics at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, informed us last week.