Smart and sustainable mobility market in Hungary

There is great business potential for smart and sustainable mobility projects in Hungary - at least € 4.5 billion will be available for transport-related developments in this decade 

In the EU’s new Multi-Annual Financial Framework, the support of transport development, and in particular the facilitation of the transition to sustainable transport, will continue to play a significant role. In a study on smart and sustainable mobility commissioned by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Deloitte analyzes – among others – the business opportunities offered to market players in the new financing period. The key findings of the study were presented in a webinar held on March 17, 2021.

The Hungarian Government started a social dialogue on the new EU-funded programs planned for the period 2021-2027 in October 2020 and has since released further information on the allocation of resources and the priority areas of support. It is already known that the Integrated Transport Development Operational Program Plus (IKOP Plus) with a budget of € 4.5 billion will be the largest EU source for rail transport, road, bicycle and port investments in Hungary in this decade. Additional support for the greening of the transport sector is expected to be provided by the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the Green Economy Financing Scheme. 

A recently published study by Deloitte and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands analyzes the smart and sustainable mobility sector in Hungary and provides information on the business opportunities arising from the development priorities of the new financing period. Taking into account the needs of both domestic and foreign investors, the report describes the characteristics of the Hungarian business environment, provides an overview of financial incentives for businesses and research consortia, and presents a wide range of Dutch-Hungarian cooperation opportunities in e-mobility, urban and international logistics as well as hydrogen propulsion.

The three main areas of collaboration identified by the study

• E-mobility: In Hungary, there are still many untapped opportunities to expand the infrastructure for charging electric vehicles. There are only 1,200 charging stations nationwide and many regions are not yet adequately covered. By 2030, the government would increase the number of charging points in Hungary to at least 5,900, for which 360 million euros are expected to be available. In addition, there will be an emphasis on decreasing greenhouse gas emissions in public transport.
• Greening of urban logistics:Due the pandemic, the demand for e-commerce services has skyrocketed in 2020, which further increased the pressure on the urban transport network. Among other things, smart and sustainable „last mile” solutions are needed, such as the utilization of unused brownfield sites in the inner city to create logistics centers from where couriers deliver packages by electric bikes or vans.
• Research, development and innovation: There are many opportunities for cooperation between foreign and Hungarian research institutes in the field of smart mobility and city logistics, for which financial support can be obtained under the Horizon Europe or the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).

The ideal policy framework and the financial resources that will soon be available provide a good basis for cooperation between Dutch and Hungarian companies, which together can achieve significant positive development in the sector in the years to come.

 – A fact to which Ákos Lukács, Head of Sustainability and Climate Change at Deloitte drew attention to during the webinar.

The key findings of a joint study by Deloitte and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands were first presented on 17 March 2021 in a webinar. In the scope of the event, Dutch and Hungarian experts shared their experiences in the sector, thus discussing the key issues of the smart and sustainable mobility market and the areas with the greatest market potential.

In the webinar’s opening speech, René van Hell, Ambassador to the Netherlands in Hungary, highlighted the following:

If our objective is to reach climate-neutrality by 2050, then we have to act now. The transition to zero-emission transport offers clear benefits as it makes our cities smarter, greener and safer and it also offers new economic opportunities. That is the reason why, among others, our embassy together with its partners has established the Hungarian Lean & Green Platform for logistics companies which are keen to achieve 0% emission with 100% collaboration.