Grand opening ceremony at the BMW plant - Debrecen marks the beginning of a new era for the European car industry

Today marks the completion of a project whose scope and scale are well illustrated by the fact that in October 2018, the mayor of the city and a representative of BMW signed a contract for the sale and purchase of several hundred hectares of land to serve as the site for the investment. The foundation stone was laid in early summer 2022 .

Thousands of people are already working in the building

Recently started, the complex, which includes 22 buildings and a 50-hectare solar farm with a nominal capacity of 53 MW, and a huge scale of infrastructure development, was already producing cars last year as it was being built in modular form, but the project reached its inauguration ceremony on 26 September. One of the first speakers from a list that included BMW's CEO and the prime minister was László Papp, mayor of Debrecen, and the content of the half-sentence in the article's title was also coined by the mayor.

The factory is built on a 400-hectare site and will be capable of producing around 150,000 cars a year. The total development is worth more than 820 billion forints and already employs more than 1000 people.

Several major domestic construction companies have participated in the construction of the factory

We have been reporting on the work in our newspaper: several major domestic companies have been involved in the construction of the factory complex. The Market Csoport played a key role in preparing the huge site, carrying out, among other things, heavy earthworks and landscaping. The company's experts excavated, moved and placed 1.5 million cubic metres of earth with centimetre precision. The construction of the parade facilities was also part of the work.

KÉSZ Építő és Szerelő Zrt. is a member of KÉSZ Csoport, three buildings: the electrical substation (MSS), the central building (CC), and painting building (TOF) (according to statements made at the topping-out ceremony, this 90,000 square metre plant was not only the tallest, but also the most challenging building to construct)

From earthworks to the Training Centre

The Market Csoport has also done some very significant building work. The Training Center, the Fire Operations Building and the facility that manages the sprinkler system for the entire factory complex, as well as the assembly plant, the heart of the production, were all part of their work.The latter 140,000 square meter building houses the production area, offices, logistics units, changing rooms, and spaces for the operation of the mechanical and low-current systems.

The Szabadics Construction Zrt., also renowned for its water and civil engineering work, is also involved in the construction of the factory.The HBM Soletanche Bachy Kft. is responsible for the special civil engineering work on the entire site. Of course, the list is still not complete.

Strong and committed partners, excellent infrastructure and reliable suppliers

At the opening ceremony, Hans-Peter Kemser, President and CEO of BMW Group Factory Debrecen, expressed his gratitude to those who participated in the creation of the monument. As dehir.hu writes, the company's CEO emphasised that, following a comprehensive and thorough analysis of numerous regions in Europe, Debrecen was found to be the most suitable location. Strong and committed partners, excellent infrastructure and reliable suppliers – according to Hans-Peter Kemser, these were the conditions that made it possible to implement such a large-scale and ambitious project.

"This is just the beginning of a unique and long term successful cooperation between BMW and the city of Debrecen"

- he highlighted.

BMW is a sure success

At the event, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said, among other things, that when in 1998 he and Chancellor Helmut Kohl agreed on cooperation between Hungarian and German industry, this was how they imagined it, the Hungarian Prime Minister recalled on Friday at the official opening of the BMW Group plant in Debrecen.

Praising the factory, Orbán added:

We are proud, fantastic and impressive in size, fantastic and impressive in quality. He recalled that when it was announced that BMW would build a factory in Debrecen, they thought it would be a "sure-fire success", because the cooperation between German car manufacturers and Hungary has been a success for decades.