BYD to invest $94 million to triple electric bus output in Hungary

BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Chinese automaker BYD will invest 32 billion forints ($94 million) in a new plant in the northern Hungarian town of Komarom, tripling its annual capacity to 1,250 electric buses and trucks, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

Under right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Hungary has become an important trade and investment partner for China, in contrast with some other European Union nations considering becoming less dependent on the world's second-largest economy.

"We Hungarians do not consider East-West cooperation a threat, but rather an opportunity, a big opportunity," Szijjarto was quoted as saying on Friday, adding that the government would support the project with a 3.1 billion forint grant.

Orban, who has spearheaded a drive in central Europe to bring Chinese EV and battery manufacturing plants to Hungary, has said his landlocked country did not want to be squeezed into either bloc and wanted to keep trading with both sides.

BYD, which is also building an electric car factory in southern Hungary and expects to establish a European centre in the country, will establish a research and development laboratory alongside its latest investment in an apparent reward for Hungary's condemnation of European tariffs on Chinese EVs.

Orban started bringing his country closer to Beijing after he came to power in 2010. Warm political relations turned into investments about a decade later when battery and EV makers started to bring production to Hungary.

Szijjarto said Hungary had received nearly a third of Chinese inward investment into Europe last year, lifting the total volume of Chinese investments to 5.5 trillion forints ($16 billion), representing 64 large projects.

($1 = 340.08 forints)

(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs and Anita Komuves. Editing by Mark Potter)