Great Wall Motor, China's largest SUV maker, expects its joint venture assembly plant in Bulgaria to start producing vehicles in February.

The factory, in the northern Bulgarian town of Lovech, is a joint venture between Great Wall and Bulgaria's Litex Motors.

"The first vehicle to be assembled at the plant will be the Haval SUV, which will be followed by the Wingle pickup and Voleex sedan later next year," said Roger Gao, a manager at Great Wall's international division.

The vehicles will be assembled first with semi-knockdown, or SKD, kits and later with complete knockdown, or CKD, kits shipped from China, Gao said. The vehicles will be sold under Great Wall's brands.

The plant, which will eventually build as many as 50,000 vehicles a year, is expected to assemble "a few thousand" vehicles in 2012, according to Gao.

"Its vehicles will be only sold in Bulgaria in the next two years," Gao said. "The plant will start to export vehicles to other eastern European countries such as Albania," he added.

In Europe, Great Wall exports vehicles to Italy. It also has a CKD plant in Russia. It also has more than 10 SKD and CKD plants in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

In the first 10 months of this year, Great Wall sold 282,000 vehicles globally, up 28 percent year-on-year, according to a research firm.