BYD has opened its first bus plant in Europe in the northern Hungarian town of Komarom.
The new plant sees an investment by BYD totalling EUR20m (US$21.34m) in the three years to 2018, with 32 employees.
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Eventually it will employ 300 people, the vast majority being locally recruited Hungarians with a technical background, who will assemble up to 400 electric buses a year on two shifts. Those buses will be exported to customers across continental Europe.
Initial output will be electric buses and coaches but other products will include electric forklift trucks and light commercial vehicles. The plant consists of five buildings: a main office, a battery test and maintenance centre, an inspection line and water leak test booth, a bus and truck assembly hall and paint shop.
It is envisaged the Hungary plant will produce the bus chassis for the UK (for assembly into complete vehicles through the BYD ADL partnership) and the newly-announced BYD factory in France. There are plans to deliver up to 40 vehicles by the end of this year.
The official name of the business will be BYD Electric Bus and Truck Hungary.
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By GlobalDataFor BYD the 66,000 sq m complex is the first of a series of European production facilities and follows the announcement two weeks ago of the acquisition of an 80,000 sq m site for bus making in Beauvais, to the north of Paris.
