netzero emissions targets of much of the auto industry the people said a lack of specialised workers in hungary to work in battery cell manufacturing could also drag on capacity they added hipa the hungarian foreign ministry agency responsible for attracting investments in areas ranging from batteries and cars to logistics did not respond to reuters queries about the ev industry chinas made good steps hungarys welcome to asian battery makers might jar with concerns expressed by brussels and berlin about the perils of europe becoming too dependent on china and other foreign powers particularly in technologies central to the green transition still for now the need to ramp up ev output leaves the european auto industry little choice but to source from asian players said csaba kilian of hungarys automotive association i absolutely agree that european manufacturers should have their own sources but its a competition and china has made good steps he added there is a learning curve europe should have a ev battery manufacturing capacity of 1200 gigawatt hours gwh by 2031 if current plans come to fruition outstripping expected demand of 875 gwh benchmark mineral intelligence bmi estimates but of that 1200 gwh 44 will be provided by asian companies with factories in europe ahead of homegrown firms on 43 and us pioneer tesla with 13 according to a reuters calculation based on bmi data the prospects for developing a battery sector in germany have been set back by record energy there as a result of the loss of russian gas according to autos consultants at boston consulting group and berylls strategy advisors hungary offers a comparatively stable energy system bolstered by nuclear energy as well as high subsidies and europes lowest corporate tax rate of 9 the entire battery supply chain has come to the country said ilka von dalwigk policy manager at the european battery alliance launched by the european union in 2017 to kickstart a homegrown industry everything is located there when we look at the forecast for 2025 and 2030 it looks like it will have one of the largest production capacities in europe she added it might very well be that hungary is in fact the next big battery production cluster in europe asked about concerns about reliance on asia for technology an eu official said the bloc which must approve member state subsidies to investors had a system in place to cooperate and exchange information on investments from noneu countries that may affect security the european commission is currently in talks with hungary over the size of the subsidy the country will offer to catl for building the debrecen plant the official added sending the wrong signal for some western companies setting up shop in hungary is a tough decision german autos supplier schaeffler said it was on the verge of setting up its primary electric motor plant in hungary rather than germany in august because of the appeal of hungarys incentives but decided on germany for