- With the opening of its new plant in Bulgaria, Great Wall becomes the first Chinese automaker to assemble cars in the European Union.
- The new plant, which starts production later this month, is located in Lovech, in north-central Bulgaria.
- Great Wall's Bulgarian plant is expected to assemble a variety of models, including the Coolbear, the Florid, the Hover and the Wingle.
LOVECH, Bulgaria — With the opening of its new plant in Bulgaria, Great Wall Motors becomes the first Chinese automaker to assemble cars in the European Union.
The new plant, which starts production later this month, is located in Lovech, in north-central Bulgaria and is coming onstream a year later than planned. First-year capacity is pegged at 8,000 units, with output gradually rising to 50,000 cars per year.
Great Wall's Bulgarian plant is expected to assemble a variety of models, including the Coolbear, the Florid, the Hover and the Wingle.
At the initial stage, the cars are expected to be sold in Bulgaria and other countries in the region, including Romania and Turkey. Great Wall plans to gradually expand its presence to other parts of Europe, including the Nordic countries.
By 2015, Great Wall said its cars will be widely available in Sweden, Norway, the U.K. and Germany.
Inside Line says: A small, but historic, first step for the Chinese.
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teatime2morrow says:
06:55 AM, 02/21/2012
urbanxj -
Not yet, I see them currently at the same level as the South Korean car manufacturers were at in the early 90s, improving assembly skills but more or less, carbon copies of other makes. There will be further consolidation of the numerous brands as well before they start designing vehicles with a completely homegrown styling. Nonetheless, their niche right now is building cheap cars for lesser world markets where tolerance for quality is lower because price point is an overriding factor.
nissan_rocks says:
05:24 AM, 02/21/2012
Rebadge for sure, but they have actually done a better job than Toyota on the front end!!...lol
urbanxj says:
04:03 PM, 02/20/2012
Lord, can't the Chinese innovate any of their own designs opposed to ripping off everything under the sun?
fast_cars says:
11:26 AM, 02/20/2012
It is indeed a rebadged Scion xB!
juan_mx says:
09:31 AM, 02/20/2012
The car in the picture looks like a copy of the Scion xB.
wikiwiki says:
09:15 AM, 02/20/2012
Welcome to City Wok!!