Hungarian foreign minister has talks with BMW leaders in Munich

German car maker BMW will use its plant in Debrecen, in eastern Hungary, as the focal point of its electric car production strategy, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Munich on Wednesday, following talks with BMW leaders.

In a press statement published on Facebook, Szijjártó said that BMW’s decision was “fantastic news”, which signalled that

“Hungary will be among world leaders in the next epoch built on electric cars.”

Though BMW has already been producing electric vehicles, it is planning to develop a separate platform for electric models to be produced in Debrecen, Szijjártó said.

The construction of BMW’s Debrecen plant is on schedule, the minister said, adding that the government had completed the infrastructural developments it had committed to contribute.

As we wrote on May, BMW will postpone the opening of its plant in Debrecen by a year because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, chairman Oliver Zipse said on a conference call after the release of the company’s first-quarter earnings report.

“In the current situation, we are carefully reviewing all our projects as a matter of principle … As an example of this: since expected demand is always a relevant factor for us, we have decided to postpone the opening of the plant in Hungary by a year,” Zipse said.

Read alsoBMW starts 1 billion euro construction project next spring in Debrecen

Source: MTI