Bulgaria 6 months 2012: Great Wall up to #10
Bulgarian police has already adopted the Great Wall Voleex C10
* See the Top 20 best-selling brands and models by clicking on the title! Thanks to Kalo *
A month ago, I wrote about how Great Wall chose Bulgaria as their focal point for an expansion throughout Europe and opened their first European factory in Lovech in February 2012. The missing link was obviously Great Wall’s first sales results in the country as a ‘local’ and thanks to Kalo I can now share these with you. And the sales are good: over the first 6 months of 2012, Great Wall is up from #24 in 2011 to #10 in the brands ranking with an impressive 516 units sold for a 4.3% market share.
The Great Wall Voleex C10, Steed and Hover are now manufactured in Bulgaria
Sales by segment enable to guess the sales per model for Great Wall and so far the Voleex C10 has been the most successful with 182 units sold over the period, followed by the Steed pick-up with 178 and the Hover H5 SUV at 156. Based on segment sales I estimate the Voleex C10 to rank within the Top 20 best-selling models in Bulgaria in 2012 so far at #19.
Kia Sportage
In other news, Volkswagen consolidates its 2011 domination with 1,304 sales and 10.9% share compared to 8.3% in 2011, followed by Toyota at 1,051 units and 8.8% and Dacia, up 3 spots on 2011 to #3 with 913 sales and 7.6%. Skoda is also up 3 ranks to #4 and 776 units, followed by Peugeot, Ford down 4 spots and Renault. Notice also Kia up from #16 in 2011 to #8 over the period thanks to 593 sales and 5% share.
Model-wise, the Dacia Logan/Sandero family dominates with 619 units and 5.2% (the split is not available), followed by the Kia Sportage at an excellent 333 sales and the Ford Focus at 274. The rest of the ranking includes the Skoda Octavia at #5, Ford Fiesta at #6, Dacia Duster at #16 and Nissan Qashqai at #17.
Previous post: Bulgaria 2011-2012: Where it all started for the Chinese in Europe
Full 6 months 2012 Top 20 Ranking Tables below.
Bulgaria 6 months 2012 – brands:
| Pos | Brand | 2012 | % | 2011 | % | Pos | 2010 |
| 1 | Volkswagen | 1,304 | 10.9% | 1,863 | 8.3% | 1 | 4 |
| 2 | Toyota | 1,051 | 8.8% | 1,786 | 7.9% | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | Dacia | 913 | 7.6% | 1,521 | 6.7% | 6 | 5 |
| 4 | Skoda | 776 | 6.5% | 1,383 | 6.1% | 7 | 12 |
| 5 | Peugeot | 752 | 6.3% | 1,543 | 6.8% | 5 | 3 |
| 6 | Ford | 734 | 6.1% | 1,854 | 8.2% | 2 | 1 |
| 7 | Renault | 664 | 5.5% | 1,290 | 5.7% | 8 | 7 |
| 8 | Kia | 593 | 5.0% | 486 | 2.2% | 16 | 17 |
| 9 | Opel | 543 | 4.5% | 1,582 | 7.0% | 4 | 6 |
| 10 | Great Wall | 516 | 4.3% | 137 | 0.6% | 24 | - |
| 11 | Citroen | 512 | 4.3% | 1,103 | 4.9% | 9 | 9 |
| 12 | Mercedes (e) | 510 | 4.3% | 1,014 | 4.5% | 11 | 11 |
| 13 | Chevrolet | 449 | 3.7% | 1,098 | 4.9% | 10 | 8 |
| 14 | Hyundai (e) | 440 | 3.7% | 827 | 3.7% | 12 | 10 |
| 15 | BMW | 342 | 2.9% | 693 | 3.1% | 13 | 14 |
| 16 | Audi | 333 | 2.8% | 586 | 2.6% | 14 | 19 |
| 17 | Fiat | 254 | 2.1% | 364 | 1.6% | 19 | 16 |
| 18 | Nissan | 242 | 2.0% | 564 | 2.5% | 15 | 13 |
| 19 | Mazda | 224 | 1.9% | 486 | 2.2% | 17 | 18 |
| 20 | Seat | 125 | 1.0% | 128 | 0.6% | 27 | 25 |
Bulgaria 6 months 2012 – models:
| Pos | Model | 2012 | % |
| 1 | Dacia Logan/Sandero | 619 | 5.2% |
| 2 | Kia Sportage | 333 | 2.8% |
| 3 | Ford Focus | 274 | 2.3% |
| 4 | VW Caddy/Transporter | 271 | 2.3% |
| 5 | Skoda Octavia | 267 | 2.2% |
| 6 | Ford Fiesta | 266 | 2.2% |
| 7 | Renault Megane | 265 | 2.2% |
| 8 | VW Golf/Jetta | 232 | 1.9% |
| 9 | Skoda Fabia | 227 | 1.9% |
| 10 | VW Polo | 227 | 1.9% |
| 11 | Opel Astra | 224 | 1.9% |
| 12 | Toyota Yaris | 224 | 1.9% |
| 13 | Toyota Avensis | 222 | 1.9% |
| 14 | VW Passat | 217 | 1.8% |
| 15 | Toyota Auris | 209 | 1.7% |
| 16 | Dacia Duster | 191 | 1.6% |
| 17 | Nissan Qashqai | 189 | 1.6% |
| 18 | Peugeot 308 | 186 | 1.6% |
| 19 | Great Wall Voleex C10 | 182 | 1.5% |
| 20 | Peugeot 206/207/208 | 182 | 1.5% |
| 21 | Great Wall Steed | 178 | 1.5% |
Source: Manufacturers, many thanks to Kalo for sharing the data!
(e): BSCB’s estimate
gw peri was never exported in europe and never didn’t achieve any bigger sale in china
those who thinks that voleex c10 is copy of yaris, i was at offical presentation of “phenom” which is his real name in china…and guess way, even toyota was there, when they compare cars to other brands
also just to inform, great wall is having cooperation with toyota for long time, plenty of spare parts for old suv and pick up models like deer and safe are even packed in original toyota packings
@matgasnier
I find the Peri less of a copy of someone else’s design than the Coolbear was, yet the Peri got far more stick. I assume that’s because they set out to sell it outside China. Other shots of the Voleex C10 give a strong Toyota Yaris impression in the profile, so maybe the extreme grille is a weak attempt to avoid accusations of copying.
Looks like the Monster World Rally Team logo!@matgasnier
Chinese Great Wall motors was ilegal copied Italian Fiat Panda (2. generation) and a had a gall
sell this ilegal copy on European market! Europeans boycot Chinese “copy” autocompany Great Wall!
Hi Peter,
I think the car you are talking about is the Great Wall Peri which is not on sale anymore and not produced in Bulgaria.
cheers
Matt
Voleex C10 looks very Wolverine-meets-Twilight.
Isn’t the grille on the 2nd pic interesting?