HIPA Automotive Conference in Budapest

The success of the Hungarian automotive industry sends a clear message to manufacturers and investors that it is economically rational to keep production in Hungary. That is according to government commissioner István Joó, CEO of the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA), who spoke at the organisation's automotive conference in Budapest on Thursday.

At the event, which was organised in partnership with the German-Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the government commissioner said that more than 507,000 vehicles were produced in Hungary last year. As a result of recent developments and investments that will be completed soon, the number of cars produced here will exceed 1 million a year within a few years. In Europe, only five countries are currently able to achieve this volume.

He added that the automotive ecosystem in Hungary is developing very rapidly; further investments are expected in software development, self-driving cars, alternative powertrains, composite technologies and testing, among others.

The commissioner was of the opinion that the electric car industry's transition will determine the economic trends of the coming decades. Thanks to the conscious construction, Hungary has become a connecting point between Western and Eastern technologies, and is already a key player in the expansion of Asian automotive companies in Europe, alongside German premium car manufacturers.

István Joó stressed the need to further increase the range of batteries and reduce production costs. To achieve a real breakthrough, in addition to the quality of the vehicles, we also need to work on the development of the electromobility infrastructure, for example by expanding the network of charging stations.