First two electric cars made in Bulgaria to come out on the market in 2011

published on 2/11/11 1:20 PM

Photo: BGNES

Two models of electric cars – a family and a sports one – made in Bulgaria will come out on the market in the second or third quarter of this year. The plans of the British company Zero Carbon 2020, which will manufacture the electric cars in the town of Stara Zagora in Southern Bulgaria, foresee an initial production of about 100 vehicles per year. By 2015, the output of the factory in Stara Zagora is expected to reach 5 to 10 thousand vehicles per year. Jamie Robertson, Zero Carbon 2020’s chairman, has announced the news during an international fair “Electric cars – the challenges to new mobility” held in Sofia. The electric cars produced in Stara Zagora will be able to cover about 300km on a single charge of their batteries. Translated in terms of expenses, 100km will cost 1,5 euro. Drawn by such incentives as cheap labor and law taxation, the Brits will initially invest in Bulgaria over 6 mln euro. Later the amount of investments will be raised to 10-15 mln euro. The French auto giant Citroen also plans to mass produce electric cars in the town of Bozurishte near the capital Sofia. They will manufacture minivans for ambulances, post delivery vans, bookstores-on-wheels for remote regions and refrigerator vans. Di Ven from the town of Lom in Northern Bulgaria will invest about 300,000 euro in the mass production of light-weight vehicles to respond to high demand abroad. The price tag of these light-weight vehicles will be in the neighborhood of 10,000 euro and it will be able to cover 50km on a single battery charge. The infrastructure will be provided. By the end of the year, about 20 charging stations for electric vehicles will be set up in Sofia by the German company RWE. “This is a new innovative industry which gives a chance to new player to become part of a range of fast developing businesses,” said at the opening of the fair Economy minister Traicho Traikov. This is what he added:

“The Bulgarian government and the Economy Ministry are working in this direction,” said minister Traikov. “We’ve already set up an expert group which is currently working on developing the production of electric vehicles in Bulgaria. It is essential that investors planning to develop that kind of business in Bulgaria have all the necessary conditions to do so.”

“The Bulgarian industry can become part of this process as a supplier by producing parts but it can also assemble vehicles as well,” said in an interview for Radio Bulgaria Iliya Levkov, chairman of Electric Vehicles Industrial Cluster. Is it possible to convert a stock vehicle into an electric one?

“It is not only possible but it is also compulsory. This process has to start right away because we’ve already merged factories producing parts,” Iliya Levkov points out. “We’re developing the conversion segment of the industry where stock cars are converted to electric ones. None of the major automakers is working on this at the moment. We’ve successfully succeeded in converting several cars in Bulgaria. I’ll give you an example. We took a popular Italian make, took out its stock engine and replaced it with an electric one. The battery, engine, know-how and labor are all Bulgarian.”

From the Association of Automakers think that the purchase of electric vehicles in Bulgaria is still not economically viable because they are three times as expensive as the stock ones. At the same time, there are no economic incentives or bonuses from the state.

“There surely will be tax incentives and the range of possibilities is wide,” says Economy Minister Traikov. “In Portugal, the state offers to owners of electric vehicles a free-of-charge recharging of batteries for 3 years. I will insist the state budget to incorporate such incentives because the advantages of such electric vehicles are immense.”

The most attractive part of the fair in Sofia was the introduction of the latest e-cars of major automakers. There was also a test drive for the most curious visitors. Today we refer to electric vehicles as second generation ones. History shows that the first electric vehicle was produced back in 1834.

Author: Tanya Harizanova
English version: Delian Zahariev

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First two electric cars made in Bulgaria to come out on the market in 2011

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