As Germany makes corporate operations more difficult with increasingly higher taxes and stricter regulations, large German car manufacturers are choosing Hungary as the location for their investments, according to Austrian newspaper Exxpress. However, not everyone in Germany is happy about this, especially left-wing politicians.
BMW, Mercedes and Audi are making significant investments in Hungary, taking advantage of the predictable regulatory environment, according to Exxpress. Mercedes is investing more than €1 billion in the expansion of its Kecskemét factory by 2026, building new assembly halls, digitizing operations, and creating flexible production lines.
BMW is also sending a clear signal: the new, fully electric iX3 model will be produced in the Debrecen plant using advanced, carbon-neutral technology.
Audi has already been manufacturing in Győr for more than 30 years, producing 180,000 vehicles and more than 1.5 million powertrains last year alone.
Although it was the Greens who chased these companies out of Germany, Green politicians are not happy that Viktor Orbán is seen as the answer for many of them.
Green Party MP Anton Hofreiter, chairman of the Bundestag’s European Affairs Committee, recently lamented that so many German car companies have chosen Hungary in an interview with car magazine Auto Motor and Sport
“German corporations have a naive approach to autocracies,” Hofreiter said.
Hofreiter also sees China’s role as problematic, calling Hungary a “bridgehead for the leakage of technical knowledge.” However, these claims have so far left German car manufacturers indifferent, as Hungary is an EU member, economically stable and closely tied to German supply chains. It also offers skilled labor at affordable prices, without the constant left-wing ideology that denigrates automobile culture and manufacturing.
The German location, on the other hand, is expensive, unattractive and unstable. Due to high energy prices, overregulation and the uncertain future of internal combustion engines, Mercedes, for example, plans to produce 100,000 fewer vehicles in Germany alone over the next three years. Industry is going where it can be planned and a skilled workforce awaits – and that is not Germany at the moment.
The green energy transition is driving out German industry. The relocation of car production to Hungary is not an isolated case, but part of a trend: Industry is fleeing Germany, mainly due to high production costs and economic policy uncertainty. And green politicians are futile in their rage, as the Hungarian prime minister has said countless times, they cannot override the laws of the economy with ideology.
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