Chinese automakers have yet to crack the United States market, but a handful have manged to enter the European market – albeit with limited success. China’s Great Wall is one such company, and now the automaker is taking things a step further with its first-ever European production facility.
Great Wall entered the European passenger car market just two-years ago, but the Chinese automaker has already opened its first production facility on the continent. Located in the Bulgarian town of Lovech, the plant officially opened its doors earlier on Tuesday, according to Reuters, making Great Wall the first Chinese automaker to open an assembly plant in Europe.
The plant will eventually produce Great Wall’s Hover SUV, Steed pick-up and Voleex city car models to the tune of 50,000 units per year. When the plant ramps up to full capacity in 2013, it will employ 2,000 people.
Great Wall has set the ambitious plan of selling 600,000 vehicles this year, which would be a 23 percent improvement over 2011. However, European sales won’t be a major contributor to that goal as the new Lovech plant is only expected to produce about 8,000 vehicles in 2012.
Uphill battle
Given the track record of other Chinese automakers selling in China, Great Wall might be facing an up-hill battle. Brilliance was one of the rare Chinese automakers to sell in Europe, but the company only managed to sell 4,000 units between 2007 and 2009. Brilliance’s poor sales even drove its European distributor to bankruptcy.
