Mercedes-Benz plant in Moscow region may start the assembly of Chinese Hongqi cars

At the Mercedes-Benz plant in the Moscow region, which the company is selling to the Russian auto holding Avtodom, they can begin the assembly of Chinese premium cars of Hongqi brand. This is reported by Izvestia newspaper, by citing its sources, according to which, crossovers may be the first to go into production. One of them - HS5 - has already been certified in Russia at the end of 2022. The fact that the assembly of Chinese cars will begin at the Mercedes-Benz plant in the Moscow region was announced the day before by the general director of the Avtosmart company (Avtodom's subsidiary in the car subscription service) Maxim Shishko at an intersectoral automobile congress. However, he did not specify which brands it would be.

The press service of Avtodom declined to comment. Recall that at the end of October 2022, Mercedes-Benz announced its withdrawal from the Russian market and the sale of its shares in local subsidiaries, including Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Rus plant, to the Avtodom dealer holding. After the transaction is completed, the new owner of the Russian divisions of Mercedes-Benz will be able to attract other companies as production partners to organize joint production based on a plant in Esipovo industrial park.

As previously reported, the enterprise can resume work in mid-2023. In addition, Avtodom will carry out maintenance of Mercedes-Benz vehicles sold in the Russian market. Mercedes-Benz plant in the Esipovo industrial park near Moscow produced E-Class sedans, as well as GLE, GLC and GLS SUVs. The production capacity of the enterprise is more than 25 thousand cars per year.