This new Hungarian BYD factory is touted to have an annual six-figure production output.
In what is the latest and biggest move yet towards strengthening its global presence, BYD has recently announced that it will be building its first-ever European passenger car factory in Szeged, Hungary. Announced during the last days of 2023 through WeChat, the Chinese automotive giant is expecting for this new Hungarian site to be complete sometime in the next two years, and will be churning out over 100,000 EVs annually by 2026.
No firm commitment on what exactly is to be produced over in this new factory just yet, but there is the expectation for the Seal and Atto 3 to be among the likely candidates for European manufacture. In any case, whatever BYD eventually rolls off that production line will be the first-ever Chinese passenger car to be produced in the Old Continent.
What more is for this new factory in Hungary to be one step closer towards making good on BYD’s European CEO, Michael Shu’s former promise for the company to target a 10% European EV market share by 2030, and become the region’s largest EV seller. The Chinese automaker currently has a retail presence in 19 countries within the Old Continent, with Hungary being the first Eastern European nation where it has started sales of its passenger EVs.
Do note though there requires a distinction of passenger EVs in the above sentences, because BYD actually already has a bus factory in Komárom near the border with Slovakia. Another Chinese automaker Nio technically also already established a manufacturing presence in the region before BYD, but its small factory near Budapest in Biatorbágy is currently only utilised to produce its Power Swap Stations (PSS).
In its biggest European market of Germany, BYD sold 350 EVs over there in November, with cumulative sales in 2023 till then being 3,858 vehicles. The company currently has plans to expand its five-model European lineup — Han, Tang, Atto 3, Seal, and Dolphin — with three more in this new year.
