China secretly assembles cars in Russia at factories of Western competitors, – Reuters

It is noted that Chinese car manufacturers hide their work at Russian plants.

Chinese carmaker Chery has begun assembling cars in Russia at three factories left over from Western rivals, including Volkswagen and Mercedes.

Reuters writes that Chinese automakers have captured more than half of the Russian car market by volume of sales since most Western competitors left the country due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Now they are expanding their sphere of influence to include most of Russian production.

In addition to importing finished cars to Russia, Chery, which accounts for almost a fifth of passenger car sales in the Russian Federation, imports almost finished cars and completes assembly at three Russian factories. The company is likely betting on strong demand in the country as Russia’s domestic market struggles with limited production and idle production capacity.

The factories that belonged to Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan produce the Tiggo SUV and the Exeed model from Chery. The Tiggo 7 is being rebranded as the Xcite X-Cross 7 at the Nissan-owned St. Petersburg Automobile Plant.

Xcite became the best new brand in Russia. The plant, starting production in January, said it was working with an unnamed “international partner.” From May to September, 3,447 cars were sold.

Chery and Russia strive to minimize the publicity of production at Russian plants. China’s cooperation with the Russian Federation has already become the subject of close attention from the West, which is trying to stop Moscow’s circumvention of sanctions.

According to the Russian analytical agency “Avtostat”, in 2023 the Chery company, together with the Exeed and Omoda brands it owns, almost quadrupled the sales of new cars in Russia compared to 2022 – to slightly more than 200,000 cars. In 2024, according to “Avtostat”, this indicator has already been exceeded.

At the same time, the Chery company reported that cars are supplied to the Russian market, but there are no plans to build or buy factories there.

After the EU’s decision to impose tariffs on the import of electric cars made in China, Chinese Chery will be subject to additional duties.

(c)UNIAN 2024