BMW may open a factory in Slovakia, joining German rival Volkswagen group which already builds a variety of group brands there.
Slovak officials told news agency AFP they would welcome BMW, which is reportedly looking at opening a factory in eastern Europe where production costs are lower than in Germany.
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“Slovakia is one of the countries under consideration for BMW’s new investment,” economy ministry spokesman Stanislav Jurikovic told AFP, without disclosing further details.
Investors including auto manufacturers are eligible for either “cash incentives or tax breaks” from the Slovak government depending on the region in which a company chooses to invest, he noted.
Slovakia also has Kia and PSA factories.
BMW said last week that it planned to invest in new production capacity, and board member Ian Robertson was quoted by Slovakia’s leading Hospodarske Noviny business daily as saying the company was looking at Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia as potential locations for a new plant.
Unlike Daimler and VW, BMW does not have any factories in low-cost eastern Europe.
BMW told AFP it had made no decisions, but that it regularly explores different countries all over the globe as potential locations for future production sites.
Slovakia is already the world’s top per-capita car producer, with the sector accounting for 39% of overall economic output.
But “there is definitely room for another car plant in Slovakia,” the head of the country’s Automotive Industry Association, Jaroslav Holecek, told AFP.
The auto manufacturing sector employs 74,000 people in the ex-communist country of 5.4m.
