Great Wall Motor to Inaugurate Bulgaria Plant on February 21

A Steed model pick-up, which is part of the test produce of the Litex and Great Wall Co plant in Bulgaria's Lovech displayed before journalists inside the factory. Photo by Litex Motors

Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor will inaugurate its first plant in Bulgaria and Europe on February 21, it has been announced.

The brand new car factory is a a joint project with Bulgarian company Litex Motors that aims at selling 2 000 vehicles in 2012.

On November 14 2011, Litex Motors and Great Wall Motors unveiled their first vehicle assembled in the plant near the northern Bulgarian city of Lovech, 16 years after Bulgaria's last failed attempt at car manufacturing.

Litex and Great Wall plant to expand their annual output to 50 000 cars, with the total employment figure at the Lovech plant planned to reach 2 000 people.

After the formal opening of the factory, Litex and Great Wall are to start their production for export markets.

Great Wall Motor has already launched its official advertising campaign in Bulgaria for the three models to be built in the EU-member country: the Hover H5 SUV, the Steed 5 pick-up and the Voleex C10 city car.

According to Renault-Nissan's Bulgaria CEO Bernard Neuviale, Great Wall cars will not directly threaten the sales of Renault's Romania-made Dacia. "Great Wall will first have to prove many things, in the first place that it can produce here a car of good quality and then we'll see. Their prices are also not so good," Neuviale said, as cited by inautonews.com.

The Voleex C10 is priced from BGN 16,000 (EUR 8,200), with the Steed 5 pick-up and the Hover H5 SUV at BGN 24,500 and BGN 28,700 respectively.

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