RUSSIA - Chinese brand Lifan to construct new plant to build cars in the state of Lipetsk Oblast

Chongqing Lifan Industry has started work on an assembly plant in Russia's western state of Lipetsk Oblast. Initially it will assemble up to 60,000 Lifan cars a year from complete knockdown kits imported from China, the company said in a statement. Production is scheduled to begin late 2017 or early 2018.

Products via CKD and full production are yet to be announced, so the pictures below are for illustrative purposes only and not to be confused with any products that may or may not be assembled in Russia.

Picture via CarNewsChina.com - Thank you.

Total investment is estimated at $300 million (1.9 billion yuan). "Over time," Lifan said, it will produce vehicle parts locally and increase capacity to up to 200,000 vehicles a year. Lifan said the factory will produce electric cars as well as conventional gasoline-powered vehicles but did not give details of the models to be produced there.

At present Lifan vehicles are assembled in Russia from semi-knockdown kits by Derways Automobile Co., a small local automaker based in Cherkessk. Lifan has not said whether this will continue when Lipetsk Oblast begins production.

Lifan is a private maker of cars and motorcycles headquartered in the southwest China municipality of Chongqing. It also assembles cars from kits in Iran, Iraq, Ethiopia, Uruguay and Vietnam. Its global sales in the first six months of this year were 64,561 cars and 315,135 motorcycles.

Russia is a major export market for Chinese automakers. Great Wall, Zhejiang Geely and Chery all sell vehicles there and last year Great Wall said it plans to build a 3.2 billion yuan ($513 million) assembly plant in the Tula Oblast region of central Russia.