Hungary introduces new e-mobility subsidy package

As Foreign and Trade Minister Péter Szijjártó announces, half of the budget will be used to build 170 new high-capacity charging stations along the busiest roads in the next two and a half years. The other 30 billion forints will be used to give companies such as sole traders, taxi and car-sharing providers the opportunity to buy electric vehicles at a “discounted price”.

Both components of the subsidy thus have a budget of 78 million euros each. At 170 HPCs, this corresponds to a subsidy of just over 458,000 euros per station, although it is not specified whether a “station” corresponds to one pillar or a location with several pillars. In the case of the vehicle subsidy, however, it is neither specified how high the discount per vehicle is to be nor how many vehicles can benefit from the subsidy.

Szijjártó says he has informed the president of BYD about the planned subsidy. BYD has been operating an electric bus plant in the country for several years and started selling its electric cars in Hungary only a few days ago.

“The electric car industry will take the place of the traditional car industry, whether we like it or not, that is a fact, and there is no way to change that. The question is whether Hungary wants to lead or fall behind?” the politician wrote in a Facebook post. “We want to lead the way, because this will further strengthen Hungary and the Hungarian economy, and create more and more jobs for the Hungarian people.”

Update 09 February 2024

The Hungarian government has launched a subsidy programme for businesses to purchase electric cars, vans and minibuses. Depending on the battery capacity, each vehicle will receive between 2.8 million and 4 million forints (approx. 7,200 to 10,300 euros). The subsidy is capped at 64 million forints (around 165,000 euros) per company. Companies with fewer than 10 employees can only receive a subsidy for one vehicle, companies with 10 to 49 employees up to five, companies with 50 to 249 employees up to 10 and larger companies up to 16 vehicles.

hungarytoday.hu, budapesttimes.hu, hungarytoday.hu, kormany.hu (in Hungarian, last 2 update)