Chinese Cars Enter Europe's Back Door

Jan. 24, 2007
Slovenian car dealer Avtocom, Dzenana Bazdarevic hopes to grab 4% of the Bosnia's market in 2007.

A leading Chinese automaker on Jan. 23 began selling its cars in Bosnia, the first time for the Asian country's models to have penetrated the European market. "We decided to first offer five low-priced Chinese models in the markets of the former Yugoslavia," a spokeswoman for Slovenian car dealer Avtocom, Dzenana Bazdarevic, said.

Avtocom, the authorized dealer in Europe for Shanghai Maple Automobile, a division of China's biggest private automaker Geely, hopes to grab 4% of the Bosnian car market this year and to double that figure by 2008. Next year it also intends to introduce five SMA models in Albania, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia.

The cheapest model, the Maple C31, would sell for 7,589 euros (US$9,872), while the most expensive, the Maple C81, would be offered at 11,276 euros (US$14,669.)

"Bosnian buyers can now get a new car for the same price at which they were buying second-hand vehicles," said Bazdarevic.

Since its 1992-1995 war, Bosnia has become a dumping ground for second-hand cars from neighboring countries. A recent study put the average age of the vehicles in the Balkan country at 15.2 years while showing that every fourth Bosnian citizen older than 18 owns a car.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007

Popular Sponsored Recommendations

Electric Vehicles Spark New Opportunities in the Automotive Industry

Dec. 4, 2023
Automakers have increased plans to produce Electric Vehicles to meet customer demand for low emissions. With this radical shift, new opportunities and challenges for the auto ...

Goodridge Boosts Productivity & Saves Costs by Moving to the Cloud!

Dec. 4, 2023
With Infor's cloud solutions, Goodridge has been able to greatly increase overall productivity, cost savings, data visibility, and automation. This case study discusses the many...

Process Mining For Dummies

Nov. 19, 2023
Here it is. Everything you need to know about process mining in a single book, written in the easy-to-understand, hard-to-forget style that ‘For Dummies’ manages so effortlessly...

Learn How Manufacturers like 3M Cater to Digital Buyers to Increase Sales

Aug. 13, 2023
In this article, you'll learn how manufacturers can balance educating and guiding their buyers through their complex buying process with a digital first approach to product discovery...

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of IndustryWeek, create an account today!