All posts by Francis Mitterrand

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BYD will start production in Hungary by the end of the year

BYD will soon complete the construction of its plant in Hungary, which will have an initial capacity of 200,000 units per year, and has now announced the start of production from October 2025. This is part of the big plan of the Chinese car manufacturer, which intends to enter the top five best-selling brands in Europe by 2030.

After the introduction of additional tariffs (17%) on imported EVs from China, many Chinese manufacturers started looking for partners or made plans to start production on the soil of the old continent. One of them is BYD, which will have plants in Szeged and Turkey. Initially, BYD will produce the Dolphin and Atto 3 models in Hungary, while the plant in Turkey will start operating in March 2026. Together, these two plants will have a production capacity of 500,000 cars per year.

At the end of 2024, in an interview for the German business magazine Capital, BYD’s European head, Stella Li, stated that the initial plan was to start with the cheap model Seagull, but it was estimated that larger and more expensive models will have better sales, such as the Dolphin and Atto 3. The Seagull will be the fourth model in the fleet of cars to be produced in Hungary, and BYD plans to increase the fleet to 12 models.

The European market is very important for Chinese companies, and in 2024, BYD sold more than 50,000 new EVs in Europe. That’s three times more than in 2023, and with two new plants in Europe, the numbers will definitely go up.

Source: Automotive News Europe, Capital

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Audi is aiming to become a luxury brand

After a failed attempt with a new name scheme, now Audi has a new plan, to become a luxury brand. The manufacturer’s goal is to enter the group of luxury car manufacturers and join brands like Mercedes.

“In the Volkswagen Group, there is room below Bentley for Audi to raise its perception without invading its luxury brother. Luxury is covered by Bentley and Porsche, and in the Premium market there are many segments and many ways to offer more than the current customer. This is an evolution and must be accompanied by transformations in the user experience through our showrooms,” says José Miguela Aparicio, the new head of the brand in the UK.

Audi has not changed its design language for a long time, so it has lagged behind the competition. The first step towards a new future has already been taken by discontinuing the A1 and Q2 models, and entering a new phase also means higher car prices. However, despite the price increases that have already been announced, starting with the next generation of the A6 model, Audi is not giving up on sales growth.

Has the German brand carefully planned every future move or is it going all in?! One option is to reduce sales volume and keep prices high, but that move has as much chance of success as it does of failure. However, perhaps the best option would be for Audi to offer more luxurious equipment along with higher prices, which would ultimately bring in more profits.

Source: Reuters

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Audi is aiming to become a luxury brand
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Porsche is targeting a new Nurburgring record for manual cars

Porsche previously announced that it will not give up the manual gearbox, and now it wants to become the king of this type of transmission. The venue will be one of the most famous tracks in the world, the Nurburgring Nordschleife, where Porsche with the 911 GT3 model will try to set the best lap time for road cars with a manual gearbox. Currently, the record is held by the Viper ACR with a time of 7:01.3.

Andreas Preuninger, director of Porsche GT development, announced the event by saying that the manual gearbox is very important for the German marque. Porsche is used to setting top times with its PDK transmission, available with seven or eight speeds, depending on the model. That’s why this venture should have been a piece of cake for the Stuttgart-based company.

Despite the fact that most manufacturers have decided to stop offering cars with a manual gearbox, not because it is more expensive than an automatic, but because some of them do not want to have two types of gearboxes on their shelves, Porsche will not do that. The Germans are more than aware that the manual transmission will be reserved only for select customers and for true sports cars like the recently updated 911 GT3, which they intend to sell in larger quantities.

If the Porsche 911 GT3 manages to set a new record, it is very clear that the Germans will show others that manual transmissions are still worth using, especially since there are very few true sports cars left in the world with this type of transmission.

Source: Porsche