When Russia invaded Ukraine, many global car manufacturers chose to leave the Russian market.
Their place has been taken by a large number of Chinese car brands that are now growing at breakneck speed.
According to a report by the Russian Association of European Business (AEB) increased new registrations in Russia by 36 percent in 2023 compared to 2022.
EU to review Chinese electric cars – wants to introduce tariffs
Geely increases threefold
Some of the brands with Western roots that have pulled out of Russia are owned by Chinese companies that continue to sell cars in the Russian market.
Geely Auto, which, like Volvo Cars, is controlled by Geely Holding, increased its sales in Russia by a whopping 244 percent in 2023 compared to 2023. This is thus a more than threefold increase, and the group delivered a total of 84,000 cars in the country in 2023.
The country’s largest car brand, Russian Lada, increased as a reference by 87 percent and delivered 352,572 cars during the same period.
Another Chinese car group that sells cars in both Europe and Russia is Great Wall Motors, which in Sweden sells the car brand Ora and will soon also launch the brand Way.
Roundabout etiquette: who are you in the roundabout?
Blacklisted by Ukraine
Due to Hong Kong-listed Geely Auto selling cars in Russia, Geely Holding has been blacklisted by Ukraine.
Several car brands owned by Geely Holding, such as Volvo, Polestar and Lotus, have their legal domicile in Sweden and Great Britain. Geely has also recently launched its own brand Zeekr in Europe.
Stefan Lundin, PR manager at Geely Sweden Holdings AB, also clarifies We Car Owners that the companies in the Geely group with European domicile follow the rules for European companies and do not have operations in Russia.
– Geely Auto with domicile in Hong Kong follows Chinese rules, where China has no sanctions against Russia and consequently products from China are sold to Russian dealers, says Stefan Lundin.
The next Dodge Charger is an electric car – here are the first pictures
The victims of the Tesla strike – now Swedes are losing their jobs