RusAutoNews.Com – According to Auto-Dealer-SPb data, St. Petersburg based Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota and GM factories have manufactured a total number of 307,700 vehicles in 2015, which is equivalent to a 15% year-on-year shrinkage. The share of Hyundai in the city’s car production has reached 75% (69% in 2014), Nissan and Toyota remaining at 11% each.
Nissan has become the only factory, which managed to increase production. The company has manufactured more than 33,600 vehicles in 2015, 7% above the 2014 figure, as reported by Autostat. The bestseller models: Nissan X-Trail and Nissan Qashqai were the stimulators of the growth in production.
St. Petersburg Hyundai factory has manufactured 229,500 vehicles in 2015, which is 3.2% lower than the previous year. 129,400 Hyundai Solaris (-2.2%) and 100,100 KIA Rio (-4.4%) were produced at the plant. It should be noted that the production of the renewed Rio model has started at the facility last year.
The number of Toyota Camry manufactured at the Toyota plant has shrunk by 10.2% in 2015, compared to last year, with 32,882 vehicles.
The analysts from Auto-Dealer-SPb are of the opinion that the performance of the St. Petersburg auto-cluster may be considered as successful, in view of the 28% decline in Russian car production. The flagship models of each of the three factories have performed much better than most of their competitors in the country. As the sales of Hyundai Solaris and KIA Rio increased in 2015, Nissan X-Trail has become the most popular crossover in Russia.
December has become the most productive month of the year for the car factories. Three plants (GM stopped operations as of 1 July) have manufactured 30,200 vehicles in total, 4% over the December 2014 figure. The positive December figures have helped increase the share of St. Petersburg in Russian automobile production. The share of the city has reached 25.6% in 2015 (23.1% by the end of 11 months, up from the 21.3% in 2014).
Seven models have been manufactured in St. Petersburg factories in December: Nissan Qashqai, Nissan X-Trail, Nissan Murano, Nissan Pathfinder, Toyota Camry, Hyundai Solaris and KIA Rio. Four of these models have made it into the Top-20 most popular automobiles in Russia chart (Solaris, Rio, Camry and X-Trail).
