The first electric car battery plant may appear in Bulgaria next year

The automotive industry is already contributing to 10% of the country's economy, with 5% of the country's economy up until recently. This is what Lubo Stanislavov of the "Automotive Cluster" thinks. "In a survey conducted in late 2017 and early 2018, it turned out that the automotive sector in Bulgaria accounts for about 5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. At the moment, a new study is being made, its results will become clear in January 2019", he says, adding: "It is a fact that the automobile sector in our country is developing seriously, probably representing about 10% of GDP already." According to the expert's assessment, Bulgaria is rapidly approaching the leaders in the industry in Eastern Europe. According to him, in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary already have saturation in the proceedings.

"New investments do not happen that easy, unemployment is too low there, in absolutely unhealthy levels. The exhaustion of human potential leads companies to turn to the region of Southeastern Europe," Stanislavov explains. "The question is whether Bulgaria has the opportunity to achieve the fastest rate of development in it and to take the most of the targeted interest",  he said in an interview with BloombergTV Bulgaria. According to the expert, first of all, efforts should be made to attract producers from the sector. But then our country needs to be positioned as a place to develop innovations and new technologies in the sphere.

"We do not have a big project for the production of electric vehicle batteries yet, and we hope it will come in 2019. The need for batteries will be significant in the next 5-6 years, and they will cost about 50% of the cost of the car," he says. In addition, Stanislavov says that Bulgaria needs to work harder in another direction - unmanned vehicles. "In Bulgaria, there are a lot of software engineers, one of the most promising professions, and one of the goals in the coming years is to have 5000 engineers working on this technology, making Bulgaria one of the leading countries in the world in terms of autonomous technology", he concluded.