Great Wall Motor shipping 700 Peri cars to Algeria

Shanghai, November 5 (Gasgoo.com) China's Great Wall Motor is shipping 700 vehicles to Algeria, including 420 Peris cars and 280 Deer pickups, the official Xinhua news agency reported today.

"Despite the current economic downturn, I believe the high performance-price ratio of our vehicles will maintain their appeal with African customers," says Zheng Guoqing, who is in charge of the Africa sales for Great Wall.

He said the company has exported some 2,000 Peri cars to Africa since the beginning of this year. The Peri has already got a VCA certificate of the UK and are qualified in various oversea markets, the company said.

Earlier this year Great Wall was involved in a copyright dispute with Fiat Auto S.P.A, who alleged Great Wall's GWPeri model was a clone of the Fiat Panda. An Italian court in the Fiat's hometown of Turin ruled against Great Wall Motor, agreeing the GWPeri was a Panda knockoff and banning sales of the vehicle throughout Europe.

Great Wall said at the time it did not intend to sell the car in Europe and said it did not anticipate any adverse effect of the ruling on the company's exports to overseas markets.