Inauguration of Samsung SDI’s electric car battery plant in Hungary

Reindustrialisation in Hungary will shift up a gear in 2017, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at the inauguration of Samsung SDI’s electric car battery plant in the town of Göd, north of Budapest, on Monday.

Hungary’s auto industry employed over 160,000 in the first quarter of the year, Orbán said, arguing that this had allowed Hungary to become a hub for car production in central Europe.

The prime minister said the country was on its way to becoming a regional development centre for the auto industry as well as a market leader in electric car production.

He said the South Korean giant’s new plant in Göd would be one of Hungary’s new auto industry investments which not only serve to produce cars but allow manufacturers to “dream up”, produce and test “the cars of the future”.

Orbán said several other countries would have been happy to provide a home for the Samsung SDI plant, but “Samsung is committed to Göd”. And since the town has also committed itself to the company, the government decided to support the investment, he added.

He forecast that by 2019 there would be between 3,500 and 4,000 electric car charging stations around Hungary and by 2020 some 63,000 electric vehicles on the roads, 54,000 of which would be passenger cars. He also noted that electric car owners are given tax benefits under a government scheme promoting electric car use.

Orbán said that although it had become clear since Hungary’s change in regime that a market economy did not always guarantee quality, if something is made in South Korea “we could always be sure that we are dealing with an excellent product.” He said South Korea and its companies had been symbols of quality and innovation ever since.