China's battery manufacturer to build its first European plant in Hungary

BUDAPEST, May 9 (Xinhua) -- China's EVE Energy Co. Ltd. plans to build a plant for the production of electric vehicle batteries in Debrecen, eastern Hungary, the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said on Tuesday.

The battery cell manufacturer, the world's ninth largest, will invest around 400 billion Hungarian forints (1.18 billion U.S. dollars) in the project and will create over 1,000 new jobs.

Hungary's government will support the project with 14 billion forints. EVE Energy aims to fulfill the demand for new-generation cylindrical battery cells by German carmaker BMW's plant in Hungary.

According to Szijjarto, the government of Hungary aims to make the country a global leader in environmental protection. He noted that 95 percent of the water needs of the plant will be provided from treated wastewater and surface water, and the company will also recycle part of the technological wastewater on site.

He said that the transition to electric road transport is key to achieving this goal and to meeting the European Union's green transition requirements.

"Without electric cars, the European Green Deal cannot be a success, and there are no electric cars without electric batteries," he said.

Debrecen has also been chosen as home to a giant 7.34-billion-euro (8 billion U.S. dollars) battery factory to be built by China's Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited(CATL). (1 Hungarian forint = 0.0030 U.S. dollar)