The Kaliningrad plant Avtotor has decided to wind down the distribution of Chinese brands in order to focus on its core business — automobile production. Valery Gorbunov, chairman of the company’s board of directors, told Vedomosti about this.
The company is giving up the distribution of Chinese brands starting in 2026. According to Gorbunov, sales were a forced measure for them at the stage when new brands were entering the Russian market, while the plant’s main competence is automobile production.
This is how we once started with Kia as well. But this is not our business.
At present, the plant is operating at only 10% of its capacity (300,000–350,000 cars per year), yet in 2025 it produced more than 33,000 vehicles — 10% more than a year earlier. Almost all of them were Chinese brands (Kaiyi, BAIC, SWM, Jetour, and Amberavto).
Before 2022, Avtotor produced BMW, Hyundai, and Kia, but after sanctions were imposed, contract assembly stopped and the enterprise went idle. At the end of 2025, it became known that production of the Chinese SUV Tank 300 would be localized at the plant.