The facility, where Bosch will conduct development and testing relating to autonomous driving, is expected to be completed in 2025, next door to the ZalaZONE vehicle test track.

The investment is supported by a HUF 1.2 billion government grant, the minister said. 

Szijjártó said that all three premium German car brands, which apart from Germany and China only have production bases here, as well as other leading German companies in autonomous driving, see Hungary as an important research location.

He added that the government aims to attract the biggest and most technologically advanced investments to Hungary, which are key to maintaining economic growth. He said the country has become one of the European strongholds of the electric car industry, partly due to the low taxes that production and development companies are subject to here.

Finally, he noted that German companies are the largest investor community in Hungary, bilateral trade broke a record last year and grew 8% in the first half of this year, exceeding EUR 32 bln. 

Representatives of Széchenyi István University and the Bosch group signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation at the event.

The 3,500 sqm Bosch R&D and Test Campus Zalaegerszeg will focus on autonomous driving, electromobility and technologies using AI, Bosch said in a statement. 

Bosch employs close to 4,000 workers in R&D in Hungary, and this number will increase with the new R&D base.