Geely Restarts Assembly in Ukraine

VIENNA – Assembly of Geely cars from semi-knocked-down kits is under way once again at the Kremenchugsky Avtosborochny Zavod assembly plant in Kremenchug, Ukraine.

Controlled by Ukraine’s Geely distributor AIS, KrASZ is restarting Geely assembly as a result of the higher duties that are being levied on a large number of imported cars with gasoline engines. The assembler previously built Geely cars between March 2007 and January 2012.

KrASZ also produces Ssangyong vehicles.

The Geely MK New small sedan (sold in China as Geely Englon SC6), a modernized version of the MK model previously assembled in Kremenchug, is the first car to be built locally.

A second model, the Geely Emgrand 7 sedan, will launch in July and reach the local market in August. KrASZ also plans to produce the Emgrand X7 cross/utility vehicle, and it may add assembly of the Emgrand 8 sedan later this year.

Geely is the best-selling Chinese brand in Ukraine. Last year, the auto maker delivered 12,099 cars in the country, up 87.6% from 2011.

Volume this year through May totaled 5,787 units, up 62.6% from like-2012, giving Geely 7% of the market and ranking it No.4 behind Hyundai, ZAZ and Kia.

This week AIS celebrated the sale of the 50,000^th Geely car since the brand’s Ukraine introduction in 2007.

Within the territory of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Geely cars also are assembled in Russia from complete-knocked-down kits and in Belarus from SKD kits.