The restart of the former Hyundai Motor plant in St. Petersburg appears to be delayed. Insiders claimed that the first working day for the plant's employees would be January 9, 2024, and then the company's press service noted that the downtime was not extended to January 2024. However, in an interview with TASS news agency, Deputy Prime Minister - Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov noted that the Ministry of Industry and Trade expects the plant to be launched in a slightly different time period.

Before the plant was shut down on March 1, 2022, it produced Hyundai Creta, Hyundai Solaris, Kia Rio, and Kia Rio X-Line. South Korean Hyundai Motor has already told reporters that they are losing $219.19 million by selling seventy percent of the company's assets to the Russian company Art-Finance for a symbolic amount of seven thousand rubles. Prior to this, Art-Finance, as a dealer of Avilon, had already bought out the Russian assets of Volkswagen AG, in particular, the former Volkswagen plant in Kaluga, which is also awaiting restart.

As noted, in the agreement, Hyundai Motor plans to retain the option of buying back the assets, and all obligations for warranty and service maintenance of cars in Russia will be fulfilled. Kia, which owned the remaining thirty percent of the plant's assets, has not yet announced their sale.

It is known that from the spare parts remaining at the plant, it is possible to assemble another 10,000 cars. If you bring the missing parts from China or Kazakhstan, it will be as many as 70,000 cars.