BYD plans to expand its Hungarian bus factory with an additional 29,000 square meters of production facilities, increasing annual capacity for electric buses and trucks.
  • Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    81·
    2 days ago

    BYD has shifted its main focus from Hungary to Turkey for European EV production, as the company announced last summer.

    In Hungary, the companies relies mainly on Chinese migrant workers. Some of them protested a few weeks ago over new ‘performance-based’ wage contracts, it is not known what happened after these protest (there have been no independent reports to the best of my knowledge).

    The Hungarian outlet Daily News Hungary reported last week that the Hungarian city of Algyő agreed to house 350 Chinese guest workers for the construction of the BYD factory “under strict conditions set by the mayor.” The company emphasized that the “accommodation units in the industrial park” will be located “far from residential areas, thus minimising potential disturbances for locals,” while saying that “workers will receive three meals a day from a professional catering company.”

    • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      9·
      2 days ago

      Just quipping in that Daily News Hungary seems to cite government propaganda site Délmagyar, so don’t expect reporting critical to either the Hungarian government, China, or BYD from it. That said, there is not much more reporting on this specific factory.

      The thing though with Chinese factories versus German ones in Hungary is that unlike Western factories, the BYD supply chain is wholly vertically integrated, meaning supporting industries can’t sell to BYD, they import everything. This, along with workers in the factory being exclusively Chinese, means that BYD does not add to the economy by bringing jobs or demand for downstream industries.

      • Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        51·
        2 days ago

        I agree, although this report is not too positive on the Chinese migrants’ situation. I mean, they are literally separated from local residents, and they appear to have not too many rights.

        there is not much more reporting on this specific factory.

        Yes, I am wondering whether this has to do with Orban’s anti-immigration election campaign? Maybe he wants to keep immigration under the radar.

        • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          Definitely, at least on the side of the government.

          On the other side though, opposition media is either lazy on covering things happening outside downtown Budapest, or is not well-funded enough, but I for one didn’t even know Hungary had BYD factories, much less BYD bus factories as opposed to the passenger car factories they also have, despite reading a lot of Hungarian media.

          The battery plants get more publicity.

      • WrongDoer1@europe.pubEnglish
        5·
        2 days ago

        I believe their comment is linked with yesterday’s statement from Orbàn, saying Ukraine is no sovereign country

        • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          2·
          2 days ago

          In that case the country who has to ask Russia before attending a conference of the defensive alliance they are members of, and which has Russia able to access all of its classified data at will, and so on might be beholden to a state other than Austria.

          But I get the joke, and I didn’t get it before, and I admit I was wrong.