OREANDA-NEWS   Localization of the production of automotive components and cars of Chinese companies has great prospects for the Russian market, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at Innoprom-2023.

He visited the exposition of the Russian-Chinese EXPO together with the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov and the head of the Council of Ministers of Belarus Roman Golovchenko. The premieres were delayed at the stand of DongFeng Motor Corporation, which presented models focused on the Russian market, as well as plans for localization of production.

"It is very important that colleagues have started to deal with localization. Denis Valentinovich (Manturov), it seems to me that this is the right way when we jointly evaluate what is needed," Mishustin said.

"It is very important that we can work together, including taking into account the opportunities that exist in Russia, to make better options prepared for the Russian market. It is good that you are doing this work together in this way, allowing localization, allowing the production of a number of parts in Russia," the prime minister added, addressing the representatives of this Chinese company.

"We understand how important this is. In the future, we will increase the model range for production in Russia," Wang Peng, the head of Dongfeng Motor Rus, told him.

Andrey Reznikov, CEO of Motorinvest LLC, told the premiers about cooperation with DongFeng Motor Corporation.

"Our joint project of electric vehicles EVOLUTE has been taking the first place in the Russian market for the last nine months. We are expanding our cooperation. So "Motorinvest" together with "DongFeng" will start joint distribution of internal combustion engines (cars with an internal combustion engine) from this month, we also started selling premium VOYAH cars in Russia. The premium segment is now in a big deficit, the VOYAH brand took first place already in June in the segment of hybrids and electric vehicles, and divided the third and fourth in the premium segment," Reznikov said.

Mishustin asked about the level of localization of production: "What do you produce in Lipetsk?"

"We produce the EVOLUTE brand in Lipetsk. At the moment, a sedan and a crossover are being produced there. And in the third quarter we will add two more crossovers and a seven-seater minibus. All cars are electric, mileage from 400 to 550 kilometers (on one charge). According to the level of localization within the framework of the SPIC, we should reach about 5 thousand points," the head of Motorinvest said.

According to him, discussions are also actively underway with one of the companies to localize the production of batteries for electric vehicles.

"We plan to produce five models in Lipetsk and we also think to expand their list towards hybrids, since the electric transport market in Russia is not sufficiently developed yet. Hybrid cars are transitional between internal combustion engines and electric vehicles," Reznikov added.

In the first 6 months of 2023, 862 units of EVOLUTE electric vehicles were sold. The total sales of EVOLUTE since the start of sales exceeded 1100 units. Within the framework of the Russian-Chinese EXPO, it is planned to announce a strategic partnership of the Chinese company DongFeng with Motorinvest LLC.

Mishustin, together with the heads of government of Belarus and Kazakhstan, also inspected the Changan Motors cars presented at the exhibition. It supplies 14 models to Russia and has a network of about 140 service centers. Currently, the production of cars in Russia is not localized.