Chinese automotive manufacturer Anhui Jianghuai Automobile (JAC Motors, Hefei, Anhui; http://jacen.jac.com.cn) is in the advanced stage of negotiations with the Bulgarian economics ministry about the construction of a new plant manufacturing electric vehicles and busses in the country. If all goes as planned, the facility would be the second automotive plant in the country, where Great Wall Motors (Baoding, Hebei / China; www.gwm-global.com) first set up shop in 2012. Together with Litex Motors (Sofia / Bulgaria), the latter has built a plant in Lovech that is capable of producing 50,000 passenger vehicles a year. However, the facility assembles parts made in China, and therefore hardly relies on any local OEMs. JAC’s only foreign plant to date is located in Camacari / Brazil, where the group has been manufacturing passenger and utility vehicles since 2014.

The Bulgarian economics ministry is currently working on plans to set up eight industrial parks across the country, where foreign companies – including automotive OEMS – are invited to settle.