BYD attracts EU scrutiny over labor abuse allegations at Hungary manufacturing unit

Electrical automobile large BYD has develop into the primary Chinese language enterprise to be raised within the European Parliament over allegations of labor abuses in Hungary, CNBC has discovered, following a watchdog’s investigation into working situations on the website.

Contractors employed to construct BYD’s manufacturing unit in Hungary allegedly saved hundreds of workers working seven days every week, with shifts lasting greater than 12 hours a day, in accordance with a report revealed on April 14 by New York-based watchdog China Labor Watch (CLW). The group stated it interviewed 50 staff and visited the manufacturing unit website 3 times since October 2025.

China Labor Watch, a U.S.-based nonprofit group that has tracked employee situations since its founding in 2000, shared the report’s findings with EU authorities representatives. Earlier this month, three members of the European Parliament formally requested the European Fee concerning the alleged labor abuses in Hungary.

The allegations by China Labor Watch mark the primary time claims of labor abuses linked to a Chinese language-owned auto enterprise manufacturing within the European Union have been delivered to the eye of the European Fee, in accordance with checks by CNBC. 

In February, a employee reportedly died on-site throughout a crane operation. Citing conversations with staff, CLW founder Qiang Li instructed CNBC there had been extra deaths on website.

He added that, based mostly on conversations with staff, broader medical help was insufficient as people weren’t all the time employed on work visas with corresponding medical insurance coverage.

Hungary’s Nationwide Ambulance Service instructed CNBC Thursday that since Feb. 1, emergency medical providers had been referred to as to the manufacturing unit website 12 instances, with one demise. 

The most recent allegations come as BYD has expanded into an automotive powerhouse, surpassing Tesla because the world’s largest electrical automobile producer in 2025. BYD is amongst a wave of Chinese language corporations increasing abroad, aiming to promote greater than one million vehicles outdoors China this 12 months as gross sales in its house market stoop.

One contractor named within the report, AIM Building Hungary, is a subsidiary of Jinjiang Building Group — the identical agency linked to a 2024 scandal at BYD’s manufacturing unit in Brazil that nationwide labor authorities stated, following investigations, concerned situations “analogous to slavery.” 

BYD claimed in December 2024 that it stopped working with Jinjiang Building’s Brazilian subsidiary within the wake of the scandal. However the CLW report allegations point out BYD employed one other subsidiary of the identical Jinjiang group to construct the manufacturing unit in Hungary.  The report stated CLW reviewed a pattern labor contract for jobs at BYD’s Hungary manufacturing unit, which included the choice of being despatched to Brazil and Turkey, the place BYD can also be constructing a manufacturing unit.

AIM Building Hungary was beforehand referred to as China Jinjiang Building Hungary, in accordance with firm information from Hungary’s Ministry of Justice, accessed by means of an approved knowledge supplier.

BYD and the Jinjiang entities didn’t reply to CNBC’s requests for remark. Authorities within the EU additionally didn’t reply.

The power within the southern Hungarian metropolis of Szeged is certainly one of 5 BYD websites in Hungary, the place the automaker established its European headquarters practically a 12 months in the past throughout a go to by chairman Wang Chuanfu.

The EU raised tariffs on China-made electrical vehicles in 2024, in a bid to localize manufacturing. However China-made autos nonetheless climbed to a report 9.3% of recent vehicles offered within the bloc in December, in accordance with Rhodium Group.

BYD is quickly rising its market share. New BYD vehicles registered within the EU greater than doubled within the first two months of the 12 months to 29,291, exceeding Tesla and gaining 1.8% of the market, in accordance with the European Car Producers’ Affiliation.

By mannequin, BYD’s Seal U ranked third in January registrations, behind fashions from Renault and Skoda, in accordance with European Fee knowledge. Greater than two-thirds of recent passenger vehicles offered in Europe in January had been electrical.

Hungary obtained the majority of China’s rising automotive funding in Europe over the past three years, in accordance with Rhodium Group knowledge.

BYD’s Szeged manufacturing unit is slated to produce 300,000 vehicles per 12 months at full capability, although the timeline to achieve that concentrate on is unclear.

As building of the manufacturing unit progressed, staff, principally from China, had been allowed to relaxation solely when inclement climate halted work, in accordance with CLW.

Managers “needed to start manufacturing of vehicles in January [2026], in order that they had been speeding the undertaking’s timeline — they weren’t letting staff go away,” Li stated in Mandarin remarks translated by CNBC.

The Szeged facility manufactures BYD’s Dolphin Surf mannequin, in accordance with an organization assertion citing BYD Govt Vice President Stella Li. Native media reported in January that trial manufacturing had begun.

CLW’s Li stated the contractors used a variety of economic levers to maintain staff on-site. Some had been promised free aircraft tickets house in the event that they labored for greater than six months; others had wages withheld till their contracts had been fulfilled, or incurred miscellaneous fees comparable to recruitment charges even earlier than arriving on-site, in accordance with the report.

Staff had been directed to inform labor inspectors that they solely labored “5 days per week, eight hours per day, with one hour of additional time,” the report stated. CLW alleged their precise working hours instantly violated Hungary’s Labor Code — which limits working hours to eight per day, and not more than 48 hours every week — and that their situations resemble the Worldwide Labor Group’s definition of compelled labor.

When CNBC contacted Hungary’s Nationwide Directorate-Common for Aliens Policing concerning the allegations, the federal government division stated it “took the mandatory measures inside the scope of its authority to conduct examinations of the issues described within the [CLW’s] submissions.”

Luiz Felipe Brandao de Mello, head of Brazil’s company tasked with implementing nationwide labor requirements, was faraway from his put up, in accordance with an official authorities gazette. Reuters reported, citing two sources near the matter, that de Mello misplaced his place because of a choice so as to add BYD to a blacklist limiting its entry to loans.

Brazil’s labor ministry had added BYD to the record days earlier — solely to have a Brazilian courtroom reverse that call till a ultimate ruling was made.

Brazil’s nationwide affiliation of labor inspectors didn’t reply to CNBC’s requests for remark.