The Chinese were surprised by the heated debate, the fate of the battery factory in Debrecen was decided
I was surprised by the violent public forums a Chinese battery manufacturer
Investments similar to the construction of battery factories in Hungary are generally welcomed in Europe. At the end of last year, one was also established in Germany, in the province of Thuringia CATL plant, which is technologically identical to the one planned for Debrecen, but smaller in size. There were no environmental concerns or concerns about the development in Germany, which is why the resistance experienced in Hungary was surprising for the Chinese manufacturer.
The LMP even held a national referendum on the project, in a local referendum initiated by the Green Party they didn’t even pick up the signature sheets. According to the newspaper, this clearly illustrates the situation, according to which there is no real force behind the organization of the national voting.
Expert opinions have already confirmed that battery factories help protect the environment in the long term, yet the green parties are the loudest opponents of the project.
Scandalous behavior related to investment has never been seen in other countries. this does not make the construction of the CATL in Debrecen more difficult, but rather the possibility of an investment of such a level being realized in the future, for which there is already a huge competition between countries.
The biggest industrial development in Hungary’s history so far
As the Magyar Nemzet wrote it earlier, the investment of the Chinese CATL is the largest ever development in our country, with a total value of approximately three thousand billion forints. The world’s largest battery manufacturer chose Hungary to build its second European plant after two and a half years of negotiations, following huge international competition. This is not only huge sums on a domestic scale, but also ranks among the five largest green field investments in Europe in the last ten years.
According to the VG article, the investment could create a total of 9,000 new jobs. By 2025, production may reach 10 billion dollars a year, i.e. approximately HUF 3,680 billion. This is 1.6 percent of GDP in 2021, not including the suppliers that will be established later.
Cover photo: Deputy Mayor Lajos Barcsa, General Manager responsible for international business development Csen Csün-vej and Managing Director Virág Kocsik-Marossy (front bj) sign the agreement between the CATL company and the city of Debrecen at the Kölcsey Center in Debrecen on September 5, 2022 (Photo: MTI/Vajda John)