The German start-up company Next e.GO Mobile SE will build a plant for the production of electric vehicles (EVs) in Bulgaria, according to the Minister of Economy Kiril Petkov during a government meeting on Wednesday.

Total investment will amount to €140 million ($166m), Kallanish notes. The first electric cars of the German company are expected to be produced near the city of Lovech within two years. 

Another large German company, Bosch, will actually deliver many of the parts for these EVs and they will be manufactured in Bulgaria. 

"We are not just talking about assembly, but about a cluster - Bulgarian companies that produce car parts will deliver them for the output of electric cars that will be produced in Bulgaria, also for export," the minister adds. 

According to him, the German company is in a hurry because at the moment the competition for electric cars is great and "whoever came out on the market first with the latest cars has an advantage...We hope that the construction of the plant will be real in two years and we will have the first cars produced."

Next e.GO Mobile was founded in 2017 in the northern German city of Aachen by professor at the local university Gunther Schu. He set up another street vehicle company, StreetScooter, in 2010, which was acquired by Germany's Deutsche Post in 2019.

The company has a plant in Aachen and in December 2020 signed a contract to build a factory in Greece, which is expected to be completed within two years. Currently, the company has four models, focusing mainly on affordable city mini cars.

Bulgarian sales of EVs reached their highest level since the beginning of the year in April, according to data from the Traffic Police. A total of 193 new units were registered, up by 37% on-year.

The number of new EVs in Bulgaria increased in 2020 by 63% on-year to 1,933 units. The newly registered electric cars amount to 800.

Bulgaria is currently building 199 charging stations for EVs in the country with funding from the EU. The country has a total of about 350 charging station and one mobile station.