Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (L, rear) speaks during a press event in Budapest, Hungary, on July 29, 2022. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)
NIO's new 10,000 m2 plant will be expanded into a service and R&D center, providing after-sales services, business training and technical research and development related to the battery-swap stations.
Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said that the Hungarian government supported the investment by 1.7 billion forints (4.29 million U.S. dollars).
BUDAPEST, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker NIO is building its first overseas plant in Hungary, vice president of NIO Europe Zhang Hui and Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto informed here on Friday at a press event.
The new 10,000 m2 plant will be located in Biatorbagy, some 20 km west of Budapest. NIO said its entire European network would be supplied from the battery-swap stations built in its new Hungarian plant, which is expected to be operational in September.
NIO's famous battery swap-stations do not recharge a discharged battery, but replace it with a fully charged one, thus reducing the time needed to charge an electric vehicle to that of simply fueling up a petrol car.
In the long-term, the plant will be expanded into a service and R&D (research and development) center, providing after-sales services, business training and technical research and development related to the battery-swap stations.
Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto speaks during a press event in Budapest, Hungary, on July 29, 2022. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)
Szijjarto said that the Hungarian government supported the investment by 1.7 billion forints (4.29 million U.S. dollars).
"The electric automotive revolution is the most decisive process of the world economy, and its current pace is dictated from the East, so there is a serious competition for such related investments," Szijjarto said.
He also said that the Hungarian economy was basically based on the automotive industry, as the sector accounts for nearly a third of the small Central European country's manufacturing output.
"That is why it is a key issue to attract as many investments as possible that are linked to the electric transition," Szijjarto underlined.
The chief of Hungarian diplomacy also said that the current Hungary-China relations were stable, predictable and based on mutual respect, and recalled that a total of 20 large Chinese enterprises have invested in Hungary in the last three years.
Zhang said that besides the strong support and enthusiasm of the Hungarian government, NIO chose to build its factory in Hungary because of a skilled workforce, especially in the area of research and development, an open mind to new technologies, flexibility in business, and great infrastructure.
In an interview with Xinhua, Zhang said that the decision to build a plant in Hungary is of great significance to NIO's globalization strategy. NIO's goal is to become the company with the highest user satisfaction in the world, and the construction and operation of the Hungarian factory will help NIO improve its market layout in Europe, improve service efficiency, and bring European users a better car experience.
According to Zhang, following its entry in the Norwegian market in 2021, NIO's products and full-system services will be officially launched in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark this year. The new Hungarian plant will assist NIO in the construction of battery-swap stations and preparation for providing battery-swap services for users in these countries. (1 U.S. dollar = 395.42 Hungarian forints)
Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (R) shakes hands with Vice President of NIO Europe Zhang Hui during a press event in Budapest, Hungary, on July 29, 2022. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)■
