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The two-day event will combine a full-day professional conference with exclusive visits to CATL’s and BMW Group’s Debrecen plants.
Hungarian Battery Days will bring together more than 40 high-level speakers from across Europe and beyond to discuss the strategic, economic, technological and sustainability challenges facing the battery value chain.
Europe’s Battery Competitiveness in a Changing Global Market
The battery industry is entering a new phase. Global market conditions are changing, Europe is reassessing its industrial competitiveness, energy storage is becoming increasingly important, and questions surrounding regulation, critical raw materials, recycling and sustainable industrial development are moving to the center of the debate.
Against this backdrop, experts including Ilka von Dalwigk of Recharge, Timothée Perruchoud of the Battery European Partnership Association, Julien Bonne of Bureau Veritas and Diogo B. Moniz of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre will examine Europe’s battery value chain at a turning point. Oskaras Alšauskas of the International Energy Agency will present the latest global battery market trends and opportunities.
New Opportunities for Energy Storage and Batteries in Hungary
This year’s Hungarian Battery Days comes at an important moment for Hungary’s economic and energy policy. The conference will provide an opportunity to hear directly from representatives of the new administration about the role they see for the battery industry in Hungary’s next phase of economic development.
András Tótth, Hungary’s state secretary for energy, will address the sector’s place within the country’s broader economic and energy outlook.
Energy storage will be one of the event’s major focus areas, with experts from Energy Storage Europe, Alteo, Huawei, INFOWARE and Green Home examining how the battery energy storage system (BESS) market is developing in Hungary and Europe, what business models are emerging, and what regulatory and market conditions are needed to unlock further investment.
Sustainable Industrial Growth and Circularity
For battery and automotive investments, competitiveness increasingly goes hand in hand with efficient resource management and long-term sustainability.
This will be a central theme of the conference, with experts including Olaf Rogge of BASF Battery Materials, Anita Simon of Alteo and Florian Schrenk of Donau Chemie Group addressing how to strengthen the resilience of the battery value chain and recover valuable materials from used batteries.
As the conference takes place for the first time in Debrecen — a rapidly developing battery and e-mobility hub — a dedicated session on sustainable industrial growth in the city will bring together representatives of CATL, Automotive Cluster Debrecen, EDC Debrecen and EVE Power Hungary.
The discussion will focus on how industrial development, infrastructure, resource efficiency and environmental considerations can be addressed together as Debrecen continues to develop its battery and automotive ecosystem.
The conference will also look beyond individual countries to the wider regional ecosystem, bringing together leaders from the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and Austria to discuss regional cooperation and Central and Eastern Europe’s role in Europe’s battery value chain.
Exclusive Visits to CATL and BMW Group Plants
The 2026 edition will extend beyond the conference room. On Nov. 5, participants will have the opportunity to join exclusive professional site visits to two of Debrecen’s most important industrial facilities.
The first stop will be CATL’s battery cell manufacturing plant, which will be the company’s largest manufacturing base outside China, with a capacity of 100 GWh once all facilities are ready. The visit comes at a particularly significant moment, following CATL’s announcement that trial production had begun.
The second highlight will be BMW Group Plant Debrecen, which opened last year and is dedicated exclusively to producing fully electric vehicles.
The full agenda and registration are available at hungarianbatteryday.hu.
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