Kia Motors Rus plans to do everything possible to restart production of Kia cars at Russian automaker IzhAvto soon, managing director Vladimir Dukelsky said on Friday.
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“We are working to make it possible to restart production as soon as possible,” Dukelsky told Prime-Tass.
He said Kia and IzhAvto had resolved all outstanding disagreements and would soon sign an agreement to resume car assembly at the plant.
The plant will contract-assemble cars from kits supplied by Kia, at the South Korean automaker’s cost.
IzhAvto halted production in May due to sagging demand and began to lay off workers. The Russian carmaker was declared bankrupt in September.
IzhAvto is located in Izhevsk in the constituent republic of Udmurtia. It also assembles Lada cars from AvtoVAZ KD kits.
Dukelsky said Kia expects its sales in Russia to fall 20.5% this year to 70,000 units but nonetheless plans to raise its share of the imported car market to 5%.
