Selling Two Vehicle Factories, Hyundai Officially Leaves Russian Automotive Market

Solaris is one of the models produced by the Hyundai factory in Russia. (Doc. Automotive News Europe)

Hyundai, an automotive company from South Korea has officially left the Russian automotive market after making an agreement to sell its two factories to Art-Finance recently.

The buyer said that it had completed the acquisition of the plant in the St. Petersburg region, Russia, and received approval from local governments and federal anti-monopoly services, Reuters reported on Monday, January 29.

Previously, the manufacturer planned to sell its assets in Russia for 10,000 rubles or around Rp. 1.7 million. That means, Hyundai had to bear a loss of 287 billion won or the equivalent of Rp. 3.3 trillion.

Art-Finance said the asset had become part of its AGR Group which includes two production sites, first located in St. Petersburg and the former General Motors facility before Hyundai acquired it in 2020. It said the two factories had an annual capacity of a total of 300,000 vehicles.

The Russian company is owned by Andrei Pavlovich, a person who played a role in the acquisition of Volkswagen's assets in Russia in May 2023. The Hyundai factory will later be renamed after all registration procedures are completed.

Hyundai decided to sell its assets and withdraw from the Russian market as the impact of Russia invaded the Ukrainian territory in February 2022. Long before Hyundai, several automotive manufacturers from Europe and Japan had left the Russian market.

Despite leaving Russia, Hyundai confirmed in December that it would continue operating full-tale services for vehicles that had already been sold in the country.

However, abandoned by several well-known brands, Russia's automotive industry has not experienced a decline. Chinese automakers managed to become rescuers and have peaked after selling more than 56 percent due to local production entering the recovery phase.