By Kate Yuan

(JW Insights) Nov 7 -- China’s BYD is reported to build a new factory in Hungary that expects a doubling of foreign direct investment in the country by the end of the decade on a surge in the electric-vehicle industry, according to Bloomberg.

The jump in Hungary’s FDI stock by 2030 from the current level of €100 billion ($107 billion) will be mainly in EV and battery investments, Economic Development Minister Marton Nagy told a forum in Shanghai， said a ministry statement on November 6.

BYD may provide the latest boost. The company is set to choose Hungary over Germany for the location of its first European plant, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported over the weekend.

BYD already has a plant in northern Hungary where it assembles electric buses and trucks.

Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orban has become one of the leading European hubs for the EV industry, where production facilities help mostly German carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz AG, Volkswagen AG’s Audi and, most recently, BMW AG transition from the era of combustion engines.

Hungary has received an estimated €20 billion ($21.4 billion) of EV-related investments in the past five years, including the €7.3 billion ($7.81 billion) battery plant China’s CATL. is building in the eastern city of Debrecen. Its output capacity at 100 gigawatt hours will boost Hungary’s battery production to the fourth-highest globally by 2030 behind China, the US and Germany, according to BNEF data.

Orban was the only EU leader to attend China’s Belt and Road Initiative forum last month in Beijing. The Hungarian leader also met with BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu on the trip, said the Bloomberg report.