St. Petersburg Hyundai plant began the production of bodies for the export to Kazakhstan

St. Petersburg Hyundai plant, which has been idle since March, at the end of 2022 began to stamp parts, weld and paint bodies for the Hyundai Solaris. According to the Vedomosti newspaper, citing its sources, these bodies are not intended for Russia - the Korean company sends them for local assembly to the Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan plant in Almaty (Kazakhstan). The company also plans to produce bodies for the Hyundai Creta crossover.

This will partially load the capacity of the idle plant in St. Petersburg. The full launch of the Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan plant with a production capacity of 30,000 vehicles per year took place in October 2020. It produces seven Hyundai models: Accent (Solaris), Elantra, Sonata, Creta, Tucson, Santa Fe and Palisade. In August 2022, the company suspended the production of Accent and Creta due to the termination of the supply of components for them from the Russian plant Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus and began to negotiate with Hyundai on an emergency quota for the supply of components from other countries.

According to the Association of Kazakhstan Auto Business (AKAB), for 11 months of this year, Almaty plant of Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan increased the production by 46.8% to 33,223 cars. Hyundai's sales in the market of Kazakhstan for the same period were 25,518 units (+25.5%), which provided the Korean brand with the second place in the sales rating and a share of 23.2%.