Hungarian automotive industry: week 45 2018 edition
Jaguar Land Rover launches mass production in Slovakia, Peter Kössler awarded with state honour, autonomous-vehicle development course announced. Let’s recap what week 45 brought in Hungary’s automotive sector.
On October 24th, the mass production of Jaguar Land Rover cars began in Nitra, Slovakia, where in the first year 150,000 units will be manufactured.
“In a test project in Vienna we noticed that dandelions along the curbside grew several centimetres between preparatory and test sessions, which prompted sensors to recognise them as obstacles. As a result, on numerous occasions the test vehicle stopped or reduced its speed,” Csaba Nyalka, associate legal expert at law firm DLA Piper Horváth és Társai Ügyvédi Iroda, explained to us in relation to autonomous tests conducted in Austria.
Peter Kössler, Audi AG’s board of directors member for production and logistics, former head of the Győr-based plant, has been awarded with the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.
The Budapest University of Technology and Economics is launching an Autonomous Vehicle Control Engineer master’s course in February, a programme focusing on the development of autonomous vehicles.
Autopro and Mobilis have held Techtogether Junior, a competition for secondary school students, for the 3rd time in Zalaegerszeg to promote technical professions among teenagers.
A workshop equipped with advanced computer systems and robots has been built in Nyíregyháza with a HUF 500 million investment.
BME Solar Boat Team, a university team engaged in the development of a solar-powered watercraft has asked autopro.hu to support them in finding a shop where the team could store their existing developments and have enough space for the construction of their latest model.
Does the language competence of engineers today give them enough competitiveness on the labour market? Which are the most common foreign languages in the automotive industry? Is language testing focusing on real competence or just a method for screening employees? Hays Hungary analysed these issues in a brand new survey.
“Education platforms using virtual reality can be used best in trainings for the operation or maintenance of high-value equipment and activities in high-risk environments. Employees are capable of practising different workflows and possibilities, unexpected events and gain familiarity with the working environment,” Norbert Grasseli, director of Bay Zoltán Nonprofit Ltd. for Applied Research, told us in an interview.
In 2019, Hungary will be capable of producing 530 buses annually, with export sales expected to begin in 2020. Production volumes could reach 630 and 800 in two years and 2022, respectively.
According to the ICT Association of Hungary, the association of the information and communications technologies industry, the mass layoffs in the public sector could result in hundreds and even thousands of people who could be trained in just 6-12 months to attain a competitive position in IT.
The 29-kilometre section of the M8 between Körmend and Rábafüzes is expected to be completed by early-2021, when it will finally reach the border.
Trade unions are demanding the restoring of favourable tax treatment of cafeteria benefits, while the government is working towards a cafeteria system favouring leisure activities.
There is an increasing influx of dangerous vehicle parts or vehicle-related products into the country, chiefly diagnostic tools and software.
Evosoft Hungary will carry out two investments in the near future, totalling HUF 5.2 billion, focused on establishing the technical framework of automated industrial production.
Mahle has opened its first e-compressor plant in Balassagyarmat, where serial production is expected to launch next year.
“The renaissance of all-season tyres is a new trend that is driven by a crisis-induced cost sensitivity and increasingly mild winters due to climate change.
"Today, 42 percent of European motorists live in a climate where all-season tyres are an available option, which is why the market share of these products is increasing year by year, and will soon reach 30 percent of the global tyre market,” Melinda Topolcsik, director of the Tatabánya-based Bridgestone plant, said.
South Korea-based Doosan will carry out a HUF 32 billion investment in Tatabánya. The new plant, which is looking to employ 181 people, will be the only facility in Europe manufacturing copper foil for the batteries of electric vehicles.
The grant contract and land purchase agreement of BMW’s Hungarian investment was signed last week.
