What is happening with the Next.e.Go plant in Lovech? | DizzyRiders.bg

17 Nov 2023

In recent months, it has become clear that the German manufacturer of small electric cars Next.e.Go has plans for at least three new factories in Europe, but it seems that none of them will be in Bulgaria. On this occasion, Economic.bg makes a retrospective of the events surrounding the project for a production complex in Lovech.

The publication recalls that the investment was announced in the summer of 2021, when there was talk of a high-tech small plant. The cabinet signed a memorandum for its construction and committed to state aid when the first cars start rolling off the assembly line. Instead of the investment worth 140 million euros and the important for the region 1000 jobs, today there is nothing at the site of the “Balkan” plant.

Unfortunately, the Minister of Innovation, Milena Stoicheva, is adamant that Next.e.Go’s investment in Lovech will not take place. “This investment will not happen, she told BNT at the beginning of November. According to her, there was “significant interest”, but “as far as we know, the investor simply chose another place for his subsequent investments”. That other place is North Macedonia.

Interestingly, this opinion is not supported by the draft budget for 2024, where the investment in Lovech still appears, reports Economic.bg. The future of the Lovech plant is also supported by Next.e.Go’s prospectus, filed ahead of the New York stock exchange listing in September – where the Lovech plant is listed with a launch date of the first half of 2025.

Economic.bg has asked for more information arch. Lyubomir Stanislavov, project manager for the Next.e.Go factory in Bulgaria, who states that on the Bulgarian side all documents, projects and plans are ready, but refuses to give details about what stage the project is at because of the company’s public status and potential risks of this on investor behavior.