Gábor Benke, CEO of eTruck Motor, recently presented plans of a unique project to manufacture electric trucks near Hegyeshalom, some 175 km northwest of Budapest close to the border with Austria. He claimed the investment would be worth EUR 10 billion, an unusually high amount, and financed with the participation of Chinese investors and a certain König Bank.
Online financial news portal portfolio.hu now says it has found that much of the information provided by Benke is simply not true.
Some of the discrepancies found by portfolio.hu include:
According to eTruck Motor, one of the partners is famous designer József Zalavari. When contacted by portfolio.hu, Zalavari said that he and Benke met only once, but no partnership was established between the two sides.
Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) and Siemens were also indicated as partners in the project, but both have rejected any link.
At the same time, portfolio.hu reports, König Bank does not exist, only König Investment.
Also, there is no direct connection between the Ministry for National Economy and eTruck Motor, contrary to claims made by the latter.
Similarly, no Chinese investors were identified and according to the technical specifications detailed by eTruck, its vehicles would be something of a technological miracle.
Portfolio.hu did not attempt to provide an explanation about the possible motivations of a false project presented by the representatives of eTruck Motor.
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