Debrecen4U February 11, 2026

BMW Group Plant Debrecen is driving a surge in industrial production — with the true BMW effect still on the horizon

In December 2025, the volume of industrial production, adjusted for working-day effects, was 1 percent lower than in December 2024, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) reported in recent days. Overall, industrial production volume for the whole of last year showed a 3.2 percent annual decline. Based on unadjusted data, production increased by 1.8 percent compared to the previous year in December, and by 0.9 percent compared to the previous month.

Orsolya Nyeste, chief macroeconomic analyst at Erste Bank, believes that the performance of BMW Group Plant Debrecen, which began production at the end of October, was not yet really visible in the November data, but may already have contributed to the monthly growth in December. “Overall, we can still trust that the coming on stream of earlier major investments, such as BYD, CATL and Mercedes, should result in an expansion of industrial production most likely in the second half of 2026, provided that external demand becomes supportive,” the expert said in her analysis.

Dehir.hu examined the regional data. Although KSH has so far only published figures up to November, it is clear that while industrial production decreased or stagnated in most counties of the country, it rose outstandingly in Hajdú-Bihar, where the volume of industrial production increased by 11.5 percent in the first 11 months of 2025 compared to the same period of the previous year.

A similar expansion of 10.1 percent was achieved only in Komárom-Esztergom County.

In Hajdú-Bihar, industrial production increased in every month of 2025 compared to the corresponding month of 2024. At times the increase was only 0.7 percent (September), but in other months it reached as high as 20.3 percent (March). In the last two months, October and November, growth amounted to 16 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively.

As a result, in the first 11 months of 2025, the value of industrial production in Hajdú-Bihar had already exceeded the total volume for the whole of 2024.

The performance of BMW Group Plant Debrecen, which started mass production at the end of October, will likely be reflected more strongly in the December data, and will of course have an even greater impact on the industrial production figures for 2026.

The first German customers received their BMW iX3 models manufactured in Debrecen at the end of January. At the event, Customer Relations, Brand and Sales Manager Jochen Goller said that customer interest was already enormous: since the world premiere, every third purely electric BMW ordered in Europe had been the iX3 model. Therefore, production ramp-up would be accelerated, and the second shift in Debrecen would be launched much earlier.

All this means that the performance of the BMW plant in Debrecen could bring even more significant growth to industrial production data than previously expected.

According to the monthly report of HR Portal and the company information service provider Opten, more than three thousand people are already working at the Debrecen plant, while recruitment continues for 59 positions based on BMW’S career page.

Source: dehir.hu | Photo credit: BMW Group