Chinese giant BYD (Build Your Dreams), one of the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturers, is heading to Hungary to establish its first automobile factory in Europe. Spain was also suitable for investment and Asturias was one of the regions selected as candidates.
According to the news of the German newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, based on sources familiar with the operation, BYD made its decision after the meeting between the president in China last month. Wang Chuanfuand the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban.
Asturias had positioned itself as a candidate region to host the facility; So much so that before the summer, a delegation from BYD visited the Principality to explore possible lands. The delegation traveled specifically to Asturias’ Logistics and Industrial Activities Zone (Zalia) in Gijón, as confirmed by sources from the regional government. These lands met some of the requirements the company initially sought, such as the provision of more than one million square meters of industrial land with direct access to the sea to export vehicles across Europe. The visit was organized by Invest in Spain, a public organization affiliated with the Institute of Foreign Trade (ICEX), which aims to attract foreign investments.
BYD is open to Hungary, but the company will not make this decision official until the end of the year. But there is still an opportunity for Asturias. Sources familiar with the contacts between BYD and the Spanish Government stated that the Chinese giant may change its original plans for the factory in question. The initial aim was to build a facility with a surface area of one million square meters, but the company was able to split this into two. Therefore, the landing in Hungary will correspond to the first of these two factories, which is approximately 500 thousand square meters, while the fate of the second one remains unclear. And while it is true that there are other parts of Spain that could attract the interest of the Chinese manufacturer, this is where the Principality can retain its candidacy.. The BYD delegation even visited the land of the Plisan logistics zone connected to the Vigo port. The Spanish Government’s biggest incentive to attract these and other investments has been the so-called part B of the second call for Electric and Connected Vehicle (VEC II) of PERTE (Strategic Project for Recovery and Economic Transformation). With public resources of 559 million euros. The deadline for interested companies to submit their applications ended on September 15.
In any case, it seems clear that Hungary is BYD’s favorite country for its expansion into Europe, since last July it announced a plan to build an assembly plant in the Hungarian city of Fót, 17 kilometers from Budapest. This is an investment of 27 million euros and is expected to create one hundred jobs initially. The company has had an electric bus assembly facility in the same country since 2017.
If the Hungarian option for the car factory is approved, this would undermine Spain’s ambition to become the node of electric mobility in Europe. Besides BYD, the country also plans to attract new facilities from manufacturers such as Stellantis or Tesla.