Western automakers may return to Russia through Kyrgyzstan

Western automakers will be able to return to Russia through Kyrgyzstan in order to make up for their lost profits. They have now lost more than 30% of the Russian market and have not received profits.

This was stated to RIA Novosti by Svetlana Volodina, Managing Director of the international consulting company Avtoboss, noting that the return may occur through the opening of production facilities in this EAEU republic by large Western companies.

Volodina's words are confirmed by the news that Kyrgyzstan, together with Uzbekistan, has begun construction of a new plant on Kyrgyz territory. There, the countries will jointly assemble American Chevrolet, as well as their South Korean version of Daewoo and Japanese Isuzu.

The plant has not yet been built, but Kyrgyzstan has already become an auto hub for Russia. This is evidenced by data for 2022 and the beginning of 2023, which is provided by the Kyrgyz major financial publication Economist.kg.

It is noted that at the end of 2022, the republic imported 3.1 times more cars than in 2021: 41.2 thousand cars instead of 13.1 thousand cars. In the first four months of 2023 alone, 41 thousand cars were imported into Kyrgyzstan from South Korea, the USA, Japan, and China.

Russia, by the way, was also among the top five importers of cars to Kyrgyzstan, but only 4,000 cars came from Russia. According to Tilek Eshenaliev, General Director of Mashina.kg, the largest automotive resource in Kyrgyzstan, car deliveries to Russia and Kazakhstan increased 11 times in just 4 months.