EV Battery Investments Lift Hungary’s FDI Market in 2022

BMW iFACTORY TO GET BATTERY PLANT AS INVESTMENT DOUBLES

BMW’s state-of-the-art factory in Debrecen, the cornerstone of which was laid in the summer of 2022, is to get a battery plant to assemble sixth geneneration high-voltage batteries for the fully electric model generation Neue Klasse models which will be built in Hungary’s second city. The latest news means the total investment at the greenfield site will double from EUR 1 billion to EUR 2 bln.

By BBJ Staff

On top of the additional funding, a further more than 500 new jobs will be created at the so-called iFactory by the end of 2025, the same year that the main factory is due to start auto production.

According to the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency website, “the strategy of the BMW iFactory in Debrecen (225 km east of Budapest) aims to minimize logistics distances,” leading the company to decide to build the EV battery assembly plant on the 400-hectare site.

“Thanks to the project, the batteries of every new BMW model to be built in Debrecen will be assembled on site,” HIPA added.

The battery assembly plant will cover 140,000 square meters, and it is expected to be up and running by the end of 2025. The next generation batteries can provide 30% longer driving range and 30% faster charging speed.

BMW Group says it pays particular attention to reducing emissions and the amount of resources used during its production processes as much as possible. Thanks to this green commitment, battery cell productionrelated emissions can also be cut by 60% compared to the existing fifth generation batteries, by using sustainable energy and recycling some cobalt, lithium and nickel, the automaker claims.

BMW Group is also investing billions to produce battery modules back home in Bavaria. That should hardly be a surprise once you consider that by 2030, every second new BMW worldwide will be electric.

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Speaking at the announcement of the battery plant addition, Milan Nedeljković, a member of the company’s management board, said the plant would be “the most advanced in the world,” according to Global Construction Review.

“With our iFactory, we are setting new industry standards for vehicle production. Our investments underline our systematic approach to implementing e-mobility,” he said.

The news of the new investment came just days after the site at Debrecen achieved its latest milestone. On November 24, ForestVill, the general contractor for the project, said the infrastructure

KOREAN BATTERY SUPPLIER ESTABLISHES 1ST EUROPEAN FOOTPRINT IN HUNGARY

The opening of the first European plant of CK EM Solution in Hungary was celebrated on November 17, 2022. The total investment of EUR 10.42 million is being implemented in two stages, the first of which provides an annual capacity of 1,000 tonnes of heat sink glue used for EV battery production.

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