In the abandoned Russian factories of Western car companies, until now, domestic brands, at most, were produced by the Chinese. A typical example is Moskvich, which replaced Renault models in Moscow. At the end of March, Citroën production returned to Kaluga. At the end of last year, the French said that they had lost control over the plant and claimed a loss of around 144 million euros.
“On March 27, assembly of the Citroën C5 Aircross started in Kaluga,” the Reuters agency quotes Automotive Technologies. It settled in the former Stellantis factory in the Russian city, while already in February there was information that 42 pieces of the French SUV were created there from Chinese kits. And of course the Chinese partner is still involved in the production.
Although Russian media they obstinately only write about a “Chinese partner” or a “partner from the East” and even Automotive Technologies does not directly state the connection on its website, it is clear that Dongfeng helps with the production and supply of components. The latter is the Chinese partner of Peugeot and Citroën, and the C5 Aircross for the local market is also produced at its plant in Chengdu.
The interesting thing is that Dongfeng is a minority shareholder of Stallantis, its share fell to 1.58 percent last year after the automaker bought back some of the shares. However, nine years ago, Dongfeng significantly helped the PSA concern out of financial problems, in exchange for which it received a share in the French car manufacturer.
However, there is still too much uncertainty surrounding the start of production of the French SUV in Russia. “It is not clear to me how Stellantis allowed Dongfeng to sell parts to Russia. It is not even clear how many ownership rights Dongfeng has to the parts produced in the joint venture with Stellantis,” Jato Dynamics senior analyst Felipe Munoz told Aktuálně.cz. “It seems as if Dongfeng did not respect the original copyright,” he adds, adding that there are, in short, many question marks in the whole story.
A statement from Stellantis could not be obtained by the time this text was published, the automaker did not respond to electronically sent questions. We can only repeat Stellantis’ statement to Reuters in February that he lost control of his Russian assets at the end of last year. He calculated the total loss at 144 million euros (over 3.6 billion crowns).
Therefore, although the start of production of Citroëns in Kaluga raises questions, it will probably be necessary to take it simply as a fact. So far, the car is made from parts supplied by Dongfeng. The car consists of 1,700 components, with welded and painted bodies traveling on rails from China. There are four colors to choose from, red, white, blue and grey.
Under the supervision of Automotive Technologies, the cars are assembled mostly by the factory’s original employees, the cars also have Russian VINs. The pace of the factory is currently two cars per hour, but if necessary, it is possible to produce six to eight cars per hour. In the near future, more localization is expected, including tires, windows or technical fluids. So far, only the automatic emergency call system and some adhesives used in production are from Russia.
The fact that it is a Chinese version is also revealed by the slightly different appearance of the interior compared to the European version, although the Russians claim that they have modified the cabin even further, including perhaps the colors of the upholstery or stitching. In the back there is a bench instead of three separate seats as in Europe.
However, for example, the car’s more comfortable shock absorbers with progressive hydraulic stops remained, and Automotive Technologies highlights them as one of the advantages. Under the hood is a turbocharged 16-liter gasoline engine combined with an eight-speed automatic, again a drive reserved for the Chinese market.
Car sales through more than 40 dealers across the country will start in mid-May, but the prices are not popular. The car in so far the only, albeit rich equipment, including digital alarm clocks, a localized multimedia system or the aforementioned silencers and a three-year factory warranty costs 4.3 million rubles. This translates to about 1.087 million crowns. For comparison, in the Czech Republic, the C5 Aircross starts at 565,000 crowns, and the plug-in hybrid in the highest equipment is cheaper than the “Russian” base.
It can be expected that rather than private clients – although Citroën has a much better image with them than Chinese brands – the state administration will be interested in the car. After all, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade has already included the C5 Aircross from Kaluga in the list of recommended domestic models that should be used by state officials for official purposes.
Editor-in-Chief of the mentioned magazine Behind the wheel Maxim Kadakov then told Izvestiya that the C5 Aircross was not chosen by chance. The production kits could be bought relatively easily, moreover, the car, although manufactured in China, has a number of European homologations, which Russia continues to recognize. Unlike the Chinese ones. It was therefore significantly easier to obtain all the necessary permits for the registration and production of the car.
The C5 Aircross is allegedly not the only model that Automotive Technologies would like to produce in Kaluga, but its representatives have not yet been specific. They say it would it could have been a Peugeot 4008, again from Chinese parts from Dongfeng. The local 4008 is an extended version of the European Peugeot 3008, which is technically related to Citroën.
In Russia, you can buy Hyundai and Kia again
Interestingly, Citroën is not the only major car manufacturer that left the country after Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022, but now their models are returning to the market (they used to get there through parallel imports). She already started in February “new” Solaris brand production of four models at the former Hyundai and Kia factory in St. Petersburg, owned by AGR.
These are the compact sedan HS (formerly Hyundai Solaris), SUV HC (formerly Hyundai Creta) and the pair KRS and KRX, which were once two body versions of the Kia Rio. All four models were among the best-selling models in Russia and regularly managed to compete with domestic Ladas. So far, the HS sedan has priority in production, according to Russian media then the cars are made from parts left in the country by both Korean brands.
AGR even on your website retouched only the Hyundai and Kia logos from the individual models and continues to use the original advertising images when presenting the entire quartet. The SUV HS continues to be offered in the N-Line version as well. The cheapest is the HS sedan, which starts at just over two million rubles, or about half a million crowns.
2024-04-06 04:32:21
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