Automotive industry in Bulgaria
Presently, Bulgaria introduced its own domestic supercar company, SIN Cars and armed automobiles SAMARM.
Socialist Bulgaria had a small auto industry including nearly 20 thousand units of self-developed Chavdar trucks and buses as well as the assembly of Soviet Moskvitch cars.
In 1994, Rover established Rodacar, a joint venture with a Bulgarian company to produce the Austin Maestro at a new factory in Varna, using CKD kits sent from the UK.
In 2019, the company presented their first prototype – Kinetik 07 that features an electric engine, producing 644 bhp and can reach 62 mph in 2.7 seconds.
[4] It began manufacturing the Voleex C10 hatchback from knock-down kits in February 2012, in the first half of 2013, the Steed 5 was added to the line-up,[5] and in November 2013, the Hover H6.
[6] In August 2014, the company started exports to Romania, as a first step towards expanding its presence into Eastern Europe.
At the end of 1966 the founder of the French car company Alpine, Jean Rédélé, arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria, having been invited by the ETO (export trade organisation) Bulet.
While in Bulgaria, Rédélé was introduced to the famed Bulgarian car racer Iliya Chubrikov, who was given the opportunity to test-drive the stunning Alpine A110 on the Circle Highway (at that time still in construction) around Sofia.
Iliya Chubrikov was hired by ETO Bulet in the capacity of a production manager for sports cars.
The raw material for the manufacture of the fiberglass was initially imported from France but later came from the GDR (East Germany) and Poland.
The first several Bulgaralpines were assembled at the end of 1967 when the stunning sports car was an absolute hit in Europe and the United States which of course gave a great deal of pride to Bulgaria.
Bulgaralpine was not intended for the mass consumer in Bulgaria, instead being aimed at sports clubs and racing teams.
However, some well-to-do consumers, such as the well-known Bulgarian film director Vassil Mirchev, bought a Bulgaralpine for private use.
The basic idea was to purchase complete knock down (CKD) kits of passenger cars from abroad with Bulet's available hard-currency reserves, and then to assemble them in the factories owned by Metalhim.
On July 30, 1966, the Council of Ministers issued a formal authorisation to SPC Metalhim to begin negotiations with Renault through the mediation of ETO Bulet.
The official state newspaper Rabotnichesko Delo in its issue #261 of September 18, 1966, announced that ETO Bulet and Renault had signed a contract, and only two days later 10 passengers cars Renault 8 were shown at the Plovdiv Fair, rumored to have been assembled in the Military Factory in the town of Kazanlak.
The cars were branded Bulgarrenault, and the upper left side of their windscreen bore a tricolor sticker with an inscription Bulet.
Between 1966 and 1990, the Balkan factory in Lovech, Bulgaria, assembled the Soviet-designed Moskvitch 408 (later replaced by the 412 / 1500 and Aleko) from complete knock down (CKD) kits.
During the fall of 1965 Bulgaria and the USSR signed an economic cooperation agreement for the period of 1966-1970, which contained a provision that by the end of 1968 the Balkan factory in Lovech would be completely tooled for the assembly of 15,000 Moskvitch 408 passenger cars annually.
Soon after that, the head engineer responsible for the construction of the new factory in Bulgaria, Aleksey Tatarinov, visited the city of Lovech, and the work on the project began.
The first shipment of the complete knockdown kits, containing 900 parts each, arrived at the factory's rail ramp on October 17, 1966.
By that time, the assembly capacity was limited not by the factory itself, but by the capability of the Soviet supplier to produce enough complete knockdown kits to export to Bulgaria.
After 1974, the quantity of kits imported from the USSR was fixed at 15,000 annually, which limitation remained in effect until the end of the 1980s (although during the record-setting 1984, 16,000 cars were assembled in Lovech).
In February 1987, the management of the Balkan factory, led by the then-managing director Baldzhiev, visited the AZLK to discuss the assembly of the new model Moskvitch 2141.
During the series of meetings held with their Soviet counterparts, the Bulgarians expressed their desire to switch to a progressive assembly of 40% of the components of the car, with annual shipments of 50,000 complete knock-down kits by the Soviets; however, the managing director of the AZLK Kolomnikov indicated that his factory could not provide such a number of kits.
The Bulgarian experts therefore concluded that a prospective assembly of the Moskvitch 2141 on the basis of the 15,000 (maximum 20,000) complete knockdown kits offered by the Soviets would be unprofitable and unfeasible.
On September 26, 1966, a meeting was held between the management of SPC (state production cooperative) Balkankar and representatives of the Italian automobile company Fiat.
Between April and May 1968, Bulgarian engineer Dimitar Damyanov was sent to Turin to sign a contract with Fiat regarding the delivery of welding and assembly machinery.
