Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: Great Wall Reaches Bulgaria

After wondering whether the Chevrolet Malibu nameplate is reborn last time, today I am taking you to Eastern Europe, and more precisely in Bulgaria.

2012 will stay in the history of automobile as the year the Chinese started manufacturing cars in Europe.

And yes by Europe I mean Bulgaria.

Not interested? That’s ok, because you can check out the best-selling cars in 167 additional countries and territories on my blog. They’re all there and they’re waiting for you so click away!

Back to Bulgaria.

The Great Wall factory opened in Lovech, Bulgaria, in February 2012. This is planned as the focal point for Great Wall’s expansion throughout Europe. For the moment, three Great Wall models are produced in Bulgaria: the Voleex C10 hatchback, Hover H5 SUV and Steed Pick-up. It looks like the Voleex C30 sedan could also be added to Great Wall’s Bulgarian factory lines soon.

The first sales results for Great Wall in Bulgaria since the opening of their factory are good: 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.

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

You can check out the entire Top 20 models and brands rankings over 6 months 2012 here.

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 Ford Fiesta at Dacia Duster at #16 and Nissan Qashqai at

Matt Gasnier, based in Sydney, Australia, runs a blog named Best Selling Cars, dedicated to counting cars all over the world.