After the closure of the aircraft industry, the name and the production nomenclature of the enterprise were changed several times. It was named the Bicycle and Motorcycle Plant, the Balkan Automobile Plant, the Balkan United Enterprise, the Balkan United Plants, and the Balkan Machine-Building Plant. The initial restructuring of the plant after 1954 was associated with the short-term introduction of completely atypical production. Then the management of the former aviation factory proved its strength and came out of the crisis situation on its own initiative, which was proposed to the higher authorities. They offered to start mass production of
cars and
motorcycles in Lovech, for which the factory has had the necessary machinery and highly qualified specialists. Since 1965, the plant has been called
Balkan. It consisted of 6 other plants - a plant for cars, a plant for two-wheeled vehicles, a plant for mechanical products, a plant for plastics and rubber and a tool factory. Since 1971, as part of DSO "Balkancar" (Balkancar) produced parts for electric and forklift production in Bulgaria.
Cars Towards the end of the 1950s, in an atmosphere of high technical professionalism, which was prevalent at the time in Bulgaria, the idea of developing a Bulgarian car was born. The goal was to eventually develop a prestigious production, forming the main profile of the former aircraft factory. Preliminary preparations for the first prototype of a car began in late 1958. At the same time in the yard of the factory there was a Volkswagen car kept, of which the engine and chassis were used as a model. The process of preliminary preparation also included specialists from
Plant 12 in
Sofia, who managed to make an identical copy of the original engine provided to them (after 1956 the production of all engines for Balkan motorcycles was assigned to Plant 12). The team of eng. Damyanov, which at that time included Yuli Kostov, eng. Kancho Kanchev, eng. Ivan Petrov (Deputy Chief Engineer), Georgi Filipov, Peycho Peychev, Georgi Lazarov and several otherswas tasked to shape the body. The forging of the individual components of the sheet metal bodies was done entirely by hand, with the help of wooden hammers on leather cushions filled with sand. What especially complicated the work of the team was the so-called "
geometric development", which was drawn on a huge board on a scale of 1:1. It is from here that all the measures for making templates, from which the details of the wooden model are made, are subsequently removed. The last stage of the work is related to the cutting of the wooden model into separate parts, from which the metal stamps for the external forms of the body are cast. The person in charge of making the models was Marin Radev, and Georgi Lazarov was in charge of forging the individual external elements.
Pickups and vans In parallel with the car, a prototype of a light truck based on the
Volkswagen Transporter was made. The design of the prototype was almost identical to the original. In September 1960, models of cars and a pickup trucks were exhibited in an open area on the
International Fair in Plovdiv, with a "Made in Bulgaria" sign. In the spring of 1962 in Lovech the issue of the possible production of a light truck was again discussed. In March of the same year, the team of eng. Damyanov began preliminary preparations for this task, and the initial group included Ivan Savov, Vasil Valev, Bogdan Hambardjiev and Eng. Lyubomir Toshev, who took over the main work on the suspension. The goal is to complete the prototypes of a light truck and a minibus with an identical front part within 6 months, which will be presented at the jubilee 20th consecutive
sample fair in Plovdiv. In 1962, the efforts of the design department were focused on the creation of a light truck with a payload of 800 kg and a minibus with 7+1 and 11 seats on the basis of the Soviet cars
Volga and
Moskvich. The pickup was made entirely in Lovech, but for the body of the 11-seater minibus a working visit was made to the bus plant
Chavdar,
Botevgrad, which was then the only specialized company for the production of bus bodies. A model of a minibus and a light truck was shown in Plovdiv in September 1962 under the name
Balkan T800, and their presentation was a huge success, supported by several enthusiastic articles in Bulgarian and foreign specialized publications. In April 1963, a zero series of 3 trucks was completed, whose loading platform was made of wood, unlike the first prototype, in which it was made of metal. The trucks passed the tests successfully and the proposed plan for serial production of Balkan T800 was approved. Just then, however, an unexpected problem arose - it turned out that the USSR could not produce enough sets of chassis and engines (at that time
Moskvich was still the only mass private car in the USSR), and the limited production capacity of the plant wouldn't be able to cover the needs of the local market. Nevertheless, the design work continued and in 1965 the plant presented a model of a new, more modern version of the minibus, and in 1966 - a van on a scale of 1:5, of which the exterior design was assigned to eng. Petko Mishev from the center for industrial aesthetics and artistic design (CPEHP), which after 1964 developed the design of almost all motorcycles Balkan. In 1967, the Plovdiv Fair showed the prototype of the
Rila 700 - a minibus based on the
Moskvich 408, whose body was designed by Hristo Hristov - who was among the prominent architects in Lovech. The last series of models of the Rila minibus were proposed in 1970 by Petko Mishev and Emil Ivanov (among the leading vehicle designers at the center), but they also did not receive the necessary approval from the relevant authorities, thus working on a prototype Bulgarian minibus has been discontinued.
Motorcycles and bicycles The project manager was Dimitar Damyanov. The first prototype of a motorcycle called the Balkan M1 was presented at the 17th
International Fair in Plovdiv in 1956. Production began in 1957, and by the end of that year, the first 100 pieces were made. The engines were made in Plant 12, Sofia. Motorcycles with 250 cm³ engine displacement were produced until 1971. In 1961, Plant 14 started producing mopeds of 50 cc engine capacity, the production of these lasted until 1975. From 1971 to 1975 there was also a 75 cc version of the moped produced. == From 1990 ==