South Korean EV battery companies are increasing their investments in Hungary rapidly, and yet it is China that made the largest investment in the industry in Hungary last year.

Specifically, Chinese battery material companies’ investments added up to 664 million euros, 27.1 percent of the total. Shanghai Energy New Materials Technology invested 184 million euros and Lenovo and Shenzhen Kedali made large investments as well.

South Korea, which was the largest investor in the industry in Hungary in 2019, slid to third with 436 million euros last year. Solus Advanced Materials invested 205 million euros. The company is currently running foil manufacturing facilities with an annual capacity of 10,000 tons in Hungary. The capacity is scheduled to be increased to 75,000 tons by 2025. Iljin Materials and Dongwha Enterprise decided last year to build copper foil and electrolyte production facilities in Hungary, respectively.

In January this year, SK innovation announced that it would build its third plant in Hungary in Iváncsa at an investment of US$2.29 billion. That month, Samsung SDI announced a plan to invest 940 billion won in Samsung SDI Hungary. The company has its first plant in Göd and the investment will be made for its second plant, which will increase its annual production capacity to 40 GWh.