The Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus enterprise in St. Petersburg, where Hyundai Creta, Solaris and Kia Rio were assembled until last spring, has extended its downtime until November 30, 2023, Interfax reports with reference to the St. Petersburg Employment Center. Earlier it became known that the plant would soon be sold to a Russian investor. The most likely candidate for the purchase is the Avilon dealer holding.
Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus has been operating since 2010. The plant’s design capacity is 200 thousand cars per year, and recently three models were assembled there – their production was suspended last spring. At that time, difficulties with the supply of components were cited as the reason for the downtime. For 2022, the company recorded a loss of almost 19 billion rubles, while other expenses amounted to 56 billion. Of these, 18.4 billion rubles were due to asset impairment, and another 6.4 billion were due to losses from downtime.
In September 2023, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov confirmed that the plant would soon be sold to an unnamed Russian company. The Kaliningrad Avtotor, which already produces a number of models of several Chinese brands, showed interest in the site.
However, the media name Avilon as the most likely candidate for purchasing the site. This dealer holding previously acquired another empty plant – the Volkswagen plant in the Kaluga region.
When Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus passes to a new owner, the site will be renamed and relaunched. The timing of the resumption of the plant’s operation is still unknown, as is what exactly it will produce.
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