Great Wall Motor (GWM) is the latest Chinese carmaker to start building cars inside the EU. The GWM Bulgaria plant near Lovech will produce the Ora 5 compact SUV, with the first car expected in the first quarter of 2027. It will be GWM’s first manufacturing base in Europe.
The plan
- Location: Bahovitsa near Lovech, northern Bulgaria
- Partner: Bulgarian Automotive Industry (BAI), GWM’s long-time importer
- Start of production: Q1 2027
- Planned capacity: 50,000 vehicles a year
- First model: the electric Ora 5, other powertrains and models to follow
GWM chief technology officer Wu Huixiao announced the plan at the launch of the GWM H7 in Milan. Production lines are being upgraded for new energy vehicles by the end of 2026. Assembly will start from semi-knocked-down (SKD) kits, but some parts will be sourced locally from the beginning.
“From local R&D to local manufacturing, we are building a full localized ecosystem for Europe.” – Wu Huixiao, GWM
Why Bulgaria and why now
GWM electric cars imported from China face a 20.7% EU anti-subsidy duty on top of the standard 10% import tariff. Building them locally helps avoid that cost. The site is not new for the brand either: Litex Motors assembled Great Wall cars in the same plant between 2012 and 2016.
GWM also plans at least 10 new models and variants for Europe over the next two years and has run an R&D centre in Munich since 2021. Earlier, the company said it aimed to produce 300,000 vehicles a year in Europe by 2029, though it has not explained how Bulgaria fits that target.
Our take
After BYD in Hungary and Turkey and Chery in Spain, GWM’s move confirms the trend: Chinese brands now want to be European manufacturers, not just importers. For buyers, that could mean more competitive prices on the Ora 5 and future GWM models.
