Chinese carmaker Chery has started assembling cars in Russia at three factories, including assembly capacities vacated by Volkswagen, Nissan and Mercedes, Reuters reports citing unnamed sources.
As followed by bne IntelliNews, amid an exodus of Western and Japanese carmakers from Russia, Chinese car brands have taken over the car market and are poised to take over vacant assembly capacities.
According to Reuters’ sources, Chery imports nearly finished cars to Russia and completes the assembly in three local facilities, in part due to Russia raising fees on imported cars to encourage greater localisation.
Namely, Chery's Tiggo SUV and Exeed are assembled in Russia. At the former Nissan plant the Tiggo 7 is reportedly being rebranded as the Xcite X-Cross 7 and sold as a Russian-made car. Tiggo’s are also assembled in Kaluga at a former Volkswagen plant now controlled by car dealer AGR Automotive.
Chery's export strategy is known as "semi knocked down" (SKD), one of the sources told Reuters, with Tiggo models arriving at the Kaluga plant almost completely assembled.
Chery's Exeed VX mid-size luxury crossover is reportedly being assembled at a former Mercedes plant in Esipovo, the Moscow region, now controlled by Avtodom car dealer.
Chinese carmakers Chery, Haval and Geely have made it to the top ten largest companies in Russia, according to the latest update of the foreign company rating by Forbes, which is still dominated by Western tobacco, FMCG and retail majors.
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