(Reuters) – Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motors is expanding the capacity of its assembly line in Russia to 200,000 cars from next year, seeking to expand its share of Russia’s recovering car market, two Russian newspapers reported on Friday.
Chinese carmakers have captured more than half of Russia’s car market in terms of sales since most Western counterparts abandoned the country following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and are focusing on domestic production.
Great Wall, which has been producing SUVs under its Haval brand since 2019 in the Tula region, south of Moscow, is the only Chinese carmaker that owns a factory in Russia. Capacity at the plant is currently annual production of 150,000 cars a year.
Great Wall’s domestic rival Chery has also increased its assembly of cars in Russia, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters this month, but is doing so by importing nearly finished cars and completing assembly in factories vacated by Western competitors over the war in Ukraine.
Great Wall’s factory, around 200 km (125 miles) from Moscow, will expand capacity to 200,000 cars by 2025, Russian newspapers Vedomosti and Kommersant cited Andrei Akifiev, executive director of Haval Motor Rus, as saying.
Haval Motors Rus declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
Around 100,000 Haval cars were produced in Russia in 2023, the company was quoted by the newspapers as saying.
According to Russian analytical agency Autostat, in January-September this year 136,410 Haval cars were sold, making it the best-selling Chinese brand in Russia with a 13.07% market share, closing in on the market leader, Lada, which is made by the Russia’s flagship carmaker Avtovaz.
(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Alexander Marrow and Alison Williams)
