317 employees of the former Nissan Manufacturing Rus in St. Petersburg were sent home until the end of the month, TASS reports citing the press service of the Employment Center. That is, about a third of the staff of the St. Petersburg Automobile Plant, where they recently launched the production of the X-Cross 7 crossover of the Xcite brand – aka Chery Tiggo 7 Pro with new nameplates – went into downtime.
For the first time, the ex-Nissan plant went into downtime in March 2022. At that time, his staff numbered about two thousand people.
In 2023, they temporarily launched production of the Lada X-Cross 5 crossover, which was a FAW Bestune T77 with a boat on the radiator grille. However, cooperation with FAW did not work out, and assembly stopped after the release of the first batch of 170 vehicles. They never appeared on the public market.
The ex-Nissan plant in Russia is suffering billions in losses. The plant that produces Citroen cars in Russia has registered a new brand. Nissan asked American dealers to sell cars at a loss.
In February 2024, AvtoVAZ, which came under US sanctions, returned the enterprise to the state. A new model was registered there – the Xcite X-Cross 7 crossover. The original Chery Tiggo 7 Pro was excluded from the Russian Chery line in order to protect the young brand from unnecessary competition.
It was expected that 25 thousand of these cars would be produced by the end of this year, but the announced downtime could be a signal of problems in production. At the same time, the first Xcites have already arrived at car dealerships. Sales should start on May 27, the estimated price is 2.5 million rubles.
Russian-Chinese badge engineering
