Great Wall Motor Co., a leading Chinese light-truck maker, broke ground in late November on an engine factory on a site adjacent to its vehicle assembly plant in central Russia’s Tula Oblast region.
The new factory is the first step toward localizing production of key components for vehicles produced at the Russian assembly plant, Great Wall said.
The engine factory, due to start production in 2022, can initially produce up to 80,000 engines a year, the company added.
Great Wall in 2019 opened the vehicle assembly plant in Russia, its first vehicle production site outside of China. The plant builds Great Wall’s Haval-badged H7 crossover and H9 SUV.
The private Chinese automaker, further expanding its global footprint, acquired General Motors’ assembly plant in Rayong in eastern Thailand last month.
After renovation, the Thai factory will reopen sometime in the first quarter of 2021 to build right-hand-drive pickups, SUVs and sedans with initial annual capacity of 80,000 vehicles.
Great Wall, based in the north China city of Baoding, is listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai. It delivered 961,489 vehicles globally in the first 11 months of the year, a rise of 0.75 percent from the same period last year.