Battery giant CATL recently announced its latest overseas expansion plan. It intends to invest and construct a new energy battery industry base project in Debrecen, the largest city in eastern Hungary, Kallanish learns. 

According to the announcement on 12 August, the total investment of this project will not exceed EUR 7.34 billion ($7.49 billion). CATL's wholly-owned subsidiary CATL New Energy Technology's Hungary-based company will be responsible for the implementation. The plan is to construct power battery system production lines with a capacity of 100 gigawatt-hours. The entire construction period is expected to be no more than 64 months and the official construction will start within 2022 after achieving related approvals. 

CATL's founder and chairman Zeng "Robin" Yuqun says: "The green-field project in Hungary will be a giant leap in CATL’s global expansion, and also an important step in our efforts to make outstanding contribution to the green energy drive for humankind."

On 12 August, Mercedes-Benz announced its plan to further collaboration with CATL, making it potentially the first client of CATL's Hungary plant (see related article). 

More and more Chinese enterprises in the electric vehicle industrial chain decided to expand their European layouts in Hungary. And the 2022 US CHIPS Act also exacerbate the process to some degree. 

Recently, EV company NIO announced it has chosen Hungary as the location for its first overseas plant and will start the operation in September.

During 2021, the bilateral trade volume between China and Hungary had an on-year increase of 34.5%. Hungary is the first European country signed the Belt and Road Agreement with China and has been offering beneficial policies for Chinese enterprises.