BYD's European branch has chosen its offices in Budapest, in the Hungarian capital's eleventh district. The Chinese company, which sold more than 4.2 million electric cars last year and nearly 18,000 in Europe in the first quarter of 2025, has been charmed by the policies of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. On a broader scale, the head of state has managed to attract a quarter of Chinese investment in Europe in recent years, reported the Financial Times.
The Budapest headquarters will house both BYD's European management and an innovation hub, particularly focused on the integration of intelligent driving functions. In figures, during a press conference attended by Viktor Orbán and BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu, we learned last week that the headquarters would house 2,000 employees. The total investment by the electric car brand would reach 100 billion forints, or 248 million euros.
In Szeged, in the south of the country, near the Serbian border, BYD is also investing a lot of money. It is building its first assembly plant for electric cars on the outskirts of the city, which is now scheduled to open before the end of the year. The total budget of €4 billion would allow the site to employ 10,000 workers, an investment that alerted Brussels, which opened an investigation in March to determine whether China had granted unfair public subsidies.
Hungary at odds with European Union policy
As a reminder, the European Union had voted for new customs duties in October 2024 for Chinese car manufacturers exporting electric cars. This measure aims to combat unfair competition from certain manufacturers aided by Beijing with subsidies, to help them reduce their margins and sell cheaper models.
With his positions in total disagreement with the European Union, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán now presents himself in a position of strength in Europe vis-à-vis Beijing and the economic development of its companies on the Old Continent, including the one that now presents itself as the sixth largest car manufacturer in the world. It is also not for nothing that China has chosen Turkey for a project for a second factory destined for Europe.
With Budapest and Szeged, BYD aims to make Hungary its new "hub", which will be responsible for "sales and after-sales service, vehicle certification and testing, as well as the design and development of models adapted to the local market." A further step after that of a first production site for electric buses in Komárom, in operation since 2017.
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