Asia Tech Wire (May 30) -- Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor (2333.HK) is closing its European headquarters in Munich, due to uncertainty about the future of its electric car business in the region.

Great Wall Motor Deutschland GmbH (GWMD), or GWM Europe, held an all-hands meeting on Tuesday to announce the decision and said it will terminate all employment contracts on August 31st.

This means that 100 employees of GWM Europe will lose their jobs at the end of August, including Chief Commercial Officer Steffen Cost.

However, the closure of Great Wall Motor's European headquarters does not mean that the company will exit Europe.

GWM's European headquarters officially opened at the end of November 2021 as a center for developing the continent's markets.

A spokesperson for GWM Europe told Automotive News Europe that GWM will continue to sell cars in its existing European markets, but will oversee and manage its European operations remotely from China.

Previously GWM had planned to enter markets such as Austria and Switzerland and had also set up teams, but those expansion efforts are now on hold.

The spokesperson said, "This is more of an organizational and optimization change in light of tough market conditions."

A slowdown in the European EV market, especially in Germany, and significant discounting by competitors, were two factors that the spokesperson cited.

Meanwhile, the possibility of punitive tariffs following the EU's countervailing investigation into Chinese EVs, "creates a very high uncertainty for a company like ours with an EV portfolio," the spokesperson added.

In addition to Germany, GWM currently offers electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in the UK, Ireland, Sweden and Israel.

In the first four months of this year, the automaker sold 1,621 vehicles in Europe, up 147% year-on-year, including 1,149 units of the Ora 03 small electric car.