“The serial production of electric engines has begun at Audi Hungaria’s automotive plant in Győr”, Chairman of the Board of Audi Hungaria Achim Heinfling announced at an event held to mark the occasion on Tuesday.
“The plant in Győr began 25 years ago as a small engine factory with 700 employees producing two thousand engines-a-day on an area of 60 thousand square metres, and today, following over eight billion euros of investment, the plant operates on five million square metres, employs over twelve and a half thousand people and manufactures nine thousand engines and five hundred vehicles every single day”, he told the press.
Mr. Heinfling stressed that this level of development exceeds all ideas and expectations from twenty-five years ago, and Audi is counting to a major extent on the technology and professional expertise accumulated here when preparing for an important role within the field of electromobility.
“The goal of this is to assure the company’s long-term competitiveness in a sustainable manner, the company director emphasised, pointing out that: Not only are our products innovative, but so are our production procedure, and for instance work in our new units occurs in a modular, insular-like system instead of on a traditional production line”, he explained.
At the event, Audi AG’s Director for Production and Logistics Peter Kössler highlighted: “The vehicle plant in Győr, which to date had produced over 33 million engines and more than 1.1 million cars over the past quarter of a century, is exemplary for the Audi Group”.
“The Győr plant is an important part of the Group, and the ‘heart’ of the fully electric SUVs that will soon begin serial production at the Audi plant in Brussels are also being manufacture in Győr”, he highlighted.
Mr. Kössler pointed out that by 2025 electrically driven versions of all basic models manufactured by Audi will also be available, as a result of which the company will be present in every segment with non-traditional drives. “The plant in Győr is ready to face both present and future challenges”, the Audi director declared.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó spoke about Audi’s factory in Győr as a demonstrator of the modern-age industrial revolution, highlighting the fact that the performance of the Hungarian automotive industry has doubled over the past seven to eight years to exceed 8 trillion forints (EUR 24.5bn) last year.
“Today, Hungary is one of the determining bastions of European car production and the European automotive industry”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade declared.
“The sector plays an extremely important role in enabling the rate of economic growth to remain above 4 percent”, he added.
As he explained, the key to success in the competition that is occurring within the global economy, which poses major challenges to both businesses and regulators, is to attract as many investment projects as possible that determine the new industrial era.
“The fact that Hungary has the lowest rates of corporation and income tax in Europe, and the tax burdens on employers are decreasing year-by-year, could represent a major argument in this competition”, he added.
In his speech, the region’s Member of Parliament Róbert Balázs Simon (Fidesz) highlighted the fact that the investment on the one hand indicates the Audi leadership’s confidence in Hungarian professionals, and in the results of professional training based on German work ethics and Hungarian creativity, as well as the success of the cooperation realised between the Hungarian Government, the City of Győr, the city’s university and the automotive industry manufacturer.
“A quarter of a century ago, few thought that by now Audi will have invested over eight billion euros in Hungary and will be directly providing work to 12,600 people in the region, to 30 thousand including suppliers, and that it will be operating the world’s largest automotive industry engine manufacturing plant and be one of Hungary’s highest grossing companies”, he declared.
“Audi’s continuous development is also extremely important with relation to the national economy, and this is one of the reasons why the Government has provided funding towards the company’s investment projects”, he added.
CEO of Audi Hungaria Motor Ltd. Peter Kössler first told Hungarian news agency MTI in autumn 2016 that the serial production of Audi electric vehicles will begin in Győr in late 2018 or early 2019, and that the manufacturing of electric engines will also begin in the Hungarian plant at that time and that the plant will be supplying the whole company with electric engines.
(MTI)
