Chinese brands thrive in Russia following exodus of Western firms

China has comprehensively taken over the Russian car market after stepping in to replace Western car makers following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Chinese companies such as Great Wall Motor, Geely and Chery are importing models to the country as well as co-operating with the Russian government to restart the country’s once-thriving car manufacturing industry.

As a consequence, Russian car sales are booming again, with sales up 75% so far this year, at just over 700,000, according to the Association of European Businesses (AEB) in Russia.

Of the 130,715 new cars sold in June, 69,400 were imported from China, the AEB said. Russia is now China’s biggest automotive export market.

Leading the import list was Chery Tiggo 7 Pro Max, followed by the Changan CS55 Plus and the Omoda C5, another Chery-brand model. All are SUVs.

Other Chinese cars are made in Russia, or partly made anyway. Among the world’s global car-making countries, China is alone in its willingness to overlook Russia’s warmongering in Europe, giving Russia little choice but to turn to its southern neighbour to help rebuild its car industry. 

Car plants bought from departing companies such as Volkswagen are creaking back into life to assemble Chinese knocked-down kits. Renault's old Moscow plant was first to restart, screwing together knocked-down cars from JAC and giving them Moskvitch badging – a revived Soviet brand last made in the plant in 2002.

From making Renault-branded Dacia Dusters and Renault Arkanas, the plant now assembles a range of JAC-sourced Moskvich models and will add another SUV (the 8) in October, the company said.

Another Soviet zombie brand on the revival path is that old favourite of the mid-ranking Soviet apparatchiks, Volga, which will be given new life as a Changan rebadging.

The range is expected to be built in the same Gaz facility in Nizhny Novgorod that originally built Volgas but until the Ukraine war had a profitable run as a contract manufacturer for Volkswagen.

Another contract manufacturer, Avtotor, which previously built BMWs, Hyundais and Kias in Kaliningrad, is now assembling cars from kits supplied by a range of Chinese car companies including BAIC, DFSK, Foton, Jetour, JMC and SWM.

The old Volkswagen plant in Kaluga meanwhile is due to restart work on 1 August, Avtostat has reported. No automotive tie-up has been announced, but it will almost certainly involve a Chinese partner.

Russian authorities have publicly expressed their annoyance that these are mostly just screwdriver operations, with very little of the car actually supplied by Russian parts makers. Employment levels are well down from the pre-war days, when plants would stamp, weld, paint and assemble cars, requiring workforces into the thousands.