Life is in full swing only at the former Ford plant, but cars are no longer produced there
Autonews correspondent visited four large factories that previously produced cars in Russia – Toyota, GM, Hyundai and Ford sites. While officials say that production is about to start (or has already started), the real picture suggests that the factories are rather idle.
The sign with the logo of the Japanese company was removed from the Toyota plant in St. Petersburg. And although the factory does not look neglected, the abundance of buses and minibuses on the territory of the enterprise gives the impression that the Toyota site is used as a parking lot for a bus fleet.
At the end of 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported that the Toyota plant would be mothballed. But last year, a specialized application was found for it: the company will produce the “Russian Camry.” Most likely from Chinese vehicle kits.
The GM plant is literally opposite the Toyota plant, but there are no signs of life there. The enterprise was mothballed in 2015, in 2021 the plant was taken over by Hyundai, it was planned to be used to expand the production of «Koreans» in Russia, but this never happened.
The St. Petersburg Hyundai plant looks deserted: the parking lot for employees is almost empty, neither new cars parked nor cars from old batches are visible behind the fence. Only in the open area of the Hyundai Mobis subsidiary factory there are pallets with some kind of cargo.
At the end of 2023, Hyundai Motors Manufacturing Rus was bought by the Russian AGR Automotive Group, and the plant was recently renamed to «AGR Automobile Plant». There is evidence that the plant still has vehicle kits for 70 thousand Kia Rio, Hyundai Solaris and Creta cars, and these cars are even being reassembled on a small scale.
The former Ford plant in Vsevolzhsk is the busiest place: people are walking around the area, forklifts are driving, tractors with semi-trailers are parked nearby. But now the enterprise area looks like a collection of small workshops for the production of various products: in 2023 it was reported that woodworking was started there. By the way, the same rumors were circulating regarding the former Russian Volkswagen plant.