Popular Hyundai and Kia models may begin to be assembled again in Russia

According to the Russian Automobile telegram channel, the production of Hyundai and Kia cars may resume at the former Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus plant in 2024, but under a different brand – Chinese. The author of the channel, citing unnamed sources, reports that before this happens, the plant will change its owner: Avilon will become the new owner, and Chinese GAC will be its production partner.

According to insiders, Avilon and GAC already have a plan to assemble 70 thousand Hyundai and Kia cars from those components that remained at the plant in Sestroretsk. We are talking about components for the Kia Rio, Hyundai Solaris and Creta models in the form in which they were produced before the production line was stopped in the spring of 2022. However, the cars will have their nameplates replaced with GAC. There is no official confirmation of this yet.

A few days earlier, Russian Automobile already wrote that GAC (Guangzhou Automobile Group) is interested in two Russian factories that were abandoned by foreign companies. Then we were talking about the Volkswagen assembly sites in the Kaluga region and the Hyundai plant near St. Petersburg, which the GAC delegation visited.

The former Volkswagen plant has already become the property of the Avilon dealer holding. According to rumors, Avilon already has agreements with Chery on the “screwdriver” assembly of a batch of 120 Tiggo 7 Pro Max crossovers. Avilon is also called the most likely buyer of St. Petersburg Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus.

GAC, in turn, is one of the five largest automakers in China; in China, the concern has joint ventures with Toyota, Honda and Stellantis. Next year, the automaker promised to officially launch three new models on the Russian market: the GS3 compact crossover, the M8 premium minivan and an as-yet unnamed all-terrain vehicle.

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