The EU is currently investigating whether Chinese carmaker BYD has received illegal state aid from China, money that the brand may have used to build a factory in Hungary.
The connection between electric cars and illegal state aid is something that Chinese car brands will not let go of. And now BYD may have broken the law in the EU.
In any case, the European Commission will now investigate whether the brand has received illegal subsidies from Chinese authorities in connection with the start-up of a new electric car factory in Hungary.
This is reported by the Financial Times .
According to Hungary's European Affairs Minister Janos Boka, the authorities in the country were not aware of the investigation before the Financial Times wrote about it.
– It is well known that all investments taking place in Hungary very quickly come on the radar of the European Commission, and that the Commission follows up by doubling its attention to all state aid measures taking place in Hungary, says Boka.
According to the Financial Times, the Commission has only just begun its work investigating what kind of support the new factory in Szeged has received from the authorities in China. And whether that is the case at all.
Here in Denmark, BYD is one of the Chinese car brands that hasn't really found a buyer. But with 92 new registrations in February, the brand has sold fewer cars than both Polestar and Xpeng, which are also Chinese.
This is not the first time BYD has been in the spotlight for illegal state aid. Last year, a German investigation believed it could establish that the brand has received illegal support from the communist regime in Beijing. Read more about it here .
