Mercedes will source the batteries needed for production from Debrecen, the portal reported, quoting Fabiola Attorri, managing director of Mercedes-Benz Hungária Kft. Mercedes will be the biggest customer of the Debrecen plant.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó is also quoted as saying in September 2022 that construction should start quickly, as “production in Debrecen should start at the beginning of 2025, as not only Mercedes but also BMW colleagues are standing at the corner of CATL to see when they can buy their first electric batteries”.
Last year, the German premium brand registered 5,516 passenger cars in Hungary, ranking eighth in the domestic ranking.
The biggest ever investment in Hungary is coming to Debrecen: the biggest player in the global battery market, China’s CATL, is building a €7.3 billion factory in the city with a capacity of 100 gigawatt-hours in several phases on 221 hectares of land in the Southern Economic Belt of Debrecen. When complete, the plant will employ 9,000 people and create 3,000 jobs in the first phase.
The Hajdú-Bihar County Government Office has granted the environmental permit for the first phase of CATL’s battery factory in Debrecen under stricter conditions than ever before. According to a statement from the Government Office, the permit issued imposes a number of obligations on the investor to protect environmental elements such as soil, air, nature, water, and noise.
“The Government Office’s procedure is unique in its stringency and consistency, as it sets significantly stricter requirements and conditions for the construction and environmental parameters of the Debrecen plant compared to the permits issued for battery factories operating in Hungary, which is definitely reassuring,” Mayor of Debrecen László Papp told local media.
The mayor stressed that from the very beginning, the investor had demanded that it could only bring its factory to Debrecen if it complied with all safety and environmental parameters.
“Based on the permit, we can safely say that no environmental and safety conditions had to be sacrificed for the sake of the investment. The authority consistently enforced these aspects,” László Papp concluded.
