Hyundai has completed the purchase of the former General Motors plant in St. Petersburg, Russia, according to a new report from Reuters.
The Korean automaker agreed to purchase the GM St. Petersburg plant in July after first expressing interest in the property back in 2019. The sale was then subject to approval from the Russian anti-trust body, which gave the transaction the green light to proceed in early August. Hyundai spokeswoman Yulia Tikhonravova confirmed the transaction was now fully complete in a statement released this week.
The former GM site will be Hyundai’s second assembly plant in St. Petersburg, joining the automaker’s existing plant in the Kamenka industrial area of the city. The Kamenka plant builds the Hyundai Solaris and Kia Rio subcompact cars, as well as the Hyundai Creta subcompact crossover. The GM St. Petersburg plant has an annual production capacity of around 100,000 vehicles, while the Kamenka plant can produce up to 200,000 vehicles a year.
GM completed construction on the St. Petersburg plant in 2008, which was built at a cost of around $300 million USD. The facility previously produced the Chevrolet Cruze, Opel Astra and global Chevrolet Trailblazer, but was shut down in 2015 after GM decided to pull out of mainstream mass-market segments in Russia.
Hyundai/Kia sold a total of 404,710 vehicles in Russia last year, making it the best-selling automaker in the country. The automaker has also seen strong interest for its affordable Hyundai Creta subcompact crossover in Russia, which is marketed as the Venue in the United States and Canada, and hopes the vehicle will continue to help it grow its market share and profitability in the region.
While GM no longer operates in any mainstream segments in Russia, the Cadillac brand is still active in the country. Cadillac vehicles destined for consumption in Russia are imported into the country from other GM plants.
Hyundai has not said when it expects to begin producing vehicles at the former GM St. Petersburg plant.
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Comments
Good! GM got rid of the place right before the U.S. and it’s NATO allies start bombing the FK out of the place.
That’s one way to spin GM’s failure to expand it’s business, I suppose.
THAT is THE comment… Hyundai expands markets, product segments while GM retracts. Mary B needs Quid Pro Jo Jo the Chinese Monkey and his Crack Head Son to be installed in the WH so they devastate our energy independence, so she can move some EV’s. Thats the only way EV will go main stream in America in the next 10 years. Gotta love that strategy when California is doing rolling blackouts for its citizens. Oh and this recent “hack” was energy dept focused so perhaps a foreign entity shuts down the energy grid? Wonderful! THAT is the DemoRat dream for America, no power = no mobility… we gotcha… we control you! Well done QPJJ voters… you shot the golden goose…
Xjug
Russia! Russia! Russia!
Hyundai is the growing. GM is shrinking.
A GM exec was reportedly asked about 30 years ago which carmaker they feared most. They answered ‘Hyundai’ at a time when their $4,995. Excel was largely viewed as a joke. The reply was not the then-ascendant Toyota but rather laughingstock Hyundai; one notch above the positively awful Yugo in those days. Since that time, that GM exec, whose name I don’t recall, has been proven to be quite prescient. Hyundai has grown dramatically in terms of sales and marketplace respect while GM has lumbered along, shrinking, retreating, and losing in general. Hyundai has taken an untold number of sales from once-mighty GM and Hyundai today even fields better luxury cars than the one-time Standard of the World. The GM exec was right to fear Hyundai. In the years since, they’ve taken greatly from the company and gobbling-up a Russian plant GM couldn’t make work is only more evidence of who rules and who once ruled.
Ci2eye
Actually in 2008 it was Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda who said the company they most feared was Hyundai.
PeterG,
The GM exec’s comment was much earlier. I would guess it to be 1988 -1991 timeframe when GM was still a behemoth and Hyundai was a newcomer in the US market. At the time GM had five US car divisions plus GMC and had a portfolio of about 75 models whereas Hyundai only sold the $4,995. Excel. It was hard to fathom then that GM could be scared of the Korean carmaker but today I can see why the GM exec was rightfully concerned and how his fears have been realized.
can you explain why there is hyundai and kia? aren’t both targeting the same market?
Lol. Did you even read the article? General Motors has been there, and DONE that. They’ve already expanded business to Russia which is why they currently own a plant in St. Petersburg, the plant that Hyundai is now trying to buy. The plant hasn’t been bringing in revenue nor has it aided in production for GM because it’s been closed since 2015. It’s been resting there, not contributing much to GM. So selling the stagnant $300 Million estate in Russia to Hyundai Motors isn’t a “failure” AT ALL for General Motors, not in the least bit. Not to mention the very scary, recent, and unfortunate events that took place regarding an elite group of hackers tied to the Russian government that have been identified as the criminals behind the United States government’s cyberbreach. No American cooperation or company should be “expanding business” in Russia.
Maybe Solarwind should expand its business into Russia, since Solarwind software provided the open door to the hackers.
Mind you, NSA put all their software burglary software into the internet, claiming they had nothing to do with it; one of the tools there is the software which makes any computer burglary look like being from Russia.
So there is no way to really know who the culprits are, besides Solarwind.
This affair is also a lesson to all those who think that any new update by any software should be installed right away without scrutiny.
The problem is the rotten US state apparatus.
Agreed! Barra will always be remembered for the best margins in the industry as well as GM’s technology build up, however, no auto maker retains much less gains share by dropping fairly standard features/options and offering barely just good enough interiors even at Cadillac.
I know, I know, volume doesn’t matter except when it does: A modern car maker must have scale to reduce costs while selling enough of those high margin cars to make a handsome profit.
Furthermore Barra has quit too many key markets. Russia, sure, anti American sentiment is high with the sanctions but leaving Europe and India was insane. GM claims to have cutting edge EV & autonomous technology yet failed to leverage these assets when Adam Opel needed them for EU compliance and a brand reinvention. PSA inacted very sim pl ke yet effective cost cutting measures that GM should have been capable of, too. He was right about Opel focusing on underutilized EU plants instead of using non European factories. He was smart to lease out surplus space and inact four day work weeks to cut costs. Buick Blue EVs would have been perfect for Europe and an Electric Corsa and Astra would have carved a healthy niche for the brand.
Today after one decade of Barra consumer impression of GM brands is as poor as ever with most sales going to the bad credit crowd. The wonderful EV tech hasn’t been utilized unless you count two less than competitive Bolts, and GM’s future is tied to a nation the US has less than a friendly relationship with.
GM should merge with Honda and let the Japanese run it
Ironically, that russian plant was provided many GM Daewoo(GMK) cars such as Captiva, Epica, of course Lacetti(Cruze). I hope GM do not forget GM Korea’s abilities.
GM is struggling with Korean unions and if things don’t calm down ( I believe a settlement has been reached) then there was talk of GM leaving Korea. Unions are cancer…
Xjug
If you look up the phrase “ a settlement has been reached” you will find out that means a settlement has been reached.
For more info on GM Korea, you may want to reference “GM Korea and Korean Development Bank reach agreement on cash infusion in exchange for GM agreeing to stay in Korea for 10 more years.
Korea has union issues in all areas. This is part of the reason Hyundai is willing to put more plants in other countries.
It is cheaper for them to build here in places Like Georgia where there is no union and unlike older mugs they have no legacy cost in America.
As for unions the days of HF1 are over. Labor laws prevent most all that took place years ago.
In some situations a Union can help in others they can cost jobs. Just depends where they are and the situation.
Yeah, fact is that the US military in Korea can no longer force a brutal dictator on the Korean people. The 3rd and last one was deposed in 1987. Deposed because South Korea got industry and that means workers in the factories, and such factory workers tend to organize against their bosses because they know that unity is strength, and an injury to one is an injury to all.
Hyundai is on a quest, it seems. They also recently bought an 80% share of Boston Dynamics, a leading developer of robotics in the US.
Hyundai is a massive global cooperation that is involved with all sorts of products, mfg and even shipping. Car are just a small part of what they do.
Not a quest just business as usual at least for them.
Xjug
Tell it to the angry mob that storms the White House and drags out Trump’s dismembered body.
No we are not going to bomb and Hyundai growth is a global issue for every mfg.
For GM the problem is this. Russia is a very unstable market for American companies as we don’t good relations and we are always at risk at losing our investments there at a drop of a hat.
The risk in China are not as great as China has as much to lose as we do. They need our tech help and markets to sell. Russia has no real need of markets as they supply little more than weapons, Natural gas, caviar and vodka.
Putin has tried to hold The Euro Union hostage over oil and gas for heating. He really has one card to play.
China will be a greater danger as they become more independent. But as long as they need us to sell products we have some leverage.
Right now the best thing for GM to do is remain out of Russia,
My company stopped shipping to Russia due to the theft and lost shipments. It was just not worth the cost to pay people off not to take your things.
Russia is run like the mob.
GM could spend a billion dollars on plants then be closed out a Week later.
As for Hyundai they are growing and it is price ,price , price that is leading the way. They under cut Honda and Toyota in price. They do it with cars that are good but still not as good as the others. They give up a little on resale so they can offer a lower purchase price.
I have had a number of co workers buy Hyundai just for the low price. Many just lease as they can dump it as things need fixed or serviced. The resale value is less a worry the purchase price.
A good number gave up on a Hyundai after one or two tries. Most were people who drive a lot and found the cost too fix it were not worth the savings.
But in the end purchase price is king right now as vehicle get more and more expensive.
Whow, lots of false statements in your comment, C8.R.
The worst is “Putin has tried to hold The Euro Union hostage over oil and gas for heating.”
I have lived long time, even remember that the German company Mannesmann first exported the seamless steel tubes (which they invented) to the USSR, and later deliveries of oil and gas from the Soviet Union and later from Russia to Germany and other West European countries, and can’t remember a single instance of USSR or Russia to hold one of the importing countries “hostage”, or even using energy deliveries for political pressure.
Search the world, and you will find that your statement is completely wrong.
You can’t indicate not a single instance.
Your rants against China are also unfounded. It is pretentious to claim that China needs you, C8.R!