China's Great Wall Motors Opens Plant in Bulgaria

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.

A small, but historic, first step for the Chinese.