Belarusian Belgee brand makes breakthrough in Russian car market with Chinese cars: Sales soar as major foreign manufacturers exit

Belarus is helping China to conquer the Russian car market. As a result of the departure of major foreign car manufacturers from Russia, Russians began to buy Chinese cars in large quantities, including those made in Belarus.

In March, cars of the Belarusian Belgee brand entered the top 10 best-selling car brands in Russia for the first time, Avtostat said. Over the year, its sales increased 2.6 times, to 2,732 units, as a result, the brand took 9th place, moving up the Chinese brand Jetour. At the same time, only one Belgee model is sold in Russia at the moment – the X50 crossover – almost a clone of the Geely Coolray. It is also supplied to Russia, but it costs about 300,000-500,000 rubles more than the Belarusian clone.

Until February 2024, Belgee received the prefix Geely for Russia, and now formally it has become the second non-Chinese brand in the top 10. Lada is followed by Haval, Geely, Chery, Changan, EXEED, OMODA and Lixiang.

Until March 2022, Belgian Belarus, which was created in 2011, assembled the Geely Atlas Pro, Coolray and Tugella models and planned to start producing the “high-end models” Monjaro and Emgrand. But shortly after the start of the war, the campaign stopped, and workers went on vacation due to problems with the supply of vehicle machinery from China. Last year, Geely managed to solve problems with the logistics of car components – and this was easier to do with Belarus than to create an assembly in Russia, which the Russian authorities really wanted – after all, the sanctions system is easier and the pressure from the Western community is not so strong, says one of the Belgee dealers.

China won’t go build factories in Russia. It is already difficult for him to sell what he makes: the domestic market is growing more slowly than expected, and Western countries are introducing restrictions so that they are not dependent on China. explained HSE Professor Oleg Vyugin: “Why does he need to build factories in Russia? “

Chinese brands continue their attack on the Russian market, although Avtovaz is trying in every way to prevent them. After the increase in the recycling tax initiated by the Russian manufacturer in August 2023 and a change in the payment method, the share of Chinese cars in the Russian market stopped growing. This year it even decreased slightly – 57% in March against 60% in February. Lada’s share increased, on the other hand, and for the first time in six months it exceeded 30%, notes Autostat. But this is a temporary success. Avtovaz President Maxim Sokolov complained that scrap collection was not holding back the Chinese car industry as well as it could – Chinese companies are giving such discounts that they are starting to compete with Lada on price.

The expansion will continue: almost all Chinese brands plan to increase sales this year and expand their sales network in Russia, found out “Autostat”. At the beginning of the year, there were 2,207 official outlets of Chinese brands here – more than twice as many as a year earlier.

Belgy plans to start producing two more models this year: S50 and X70, which are based on the Geely Emgrand and Geely Atlas Pro. It is not yet known about the release of the Monjaro twin in Belarus, the most popular foreign car in Russia.