Hyundai Motor Rus has begun building a third model at its St Petersburg plant. Following an upgrade which cost the equivalent of US$100m, HMR has now added production of the Creta crossover to the facility which formerly built the Hyundai Solaris and Kia Rio small cars.
The Solaris (South Korea's Verna, and Accent in certain other countries) was Russia's best selling car in the first half of 2016, with 45,930 vehicles delivered, ahead of the number two Lada Granta (43,967). Numbers for July are not yet available but at the half way point, the local market had almost halved within two years, plunging from 1,229,931 units in H1, 2014 to just 672,140 during the first six months of 2016.
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The Creta, a rival for the likes of the Nissan Juke and Renault Captur, was first seen as the ix25 at the Chengdu motor show two years ago this month. The ix25 was built initially in and for China, but Hyundai added production in India from mid-2015. Production was lifted to 13,000 cars a month in March 2016. This was due to demand from Indian buyers and those in certain export markets. HMIL ships the Creta to markets in Africa, the Middle East and South America.
China's ix25 went on sale there in October 2014. There will also be a Kia model based on the ix25 (the project development code is KC). The ix25 is available in China with the choice of 1.6- and 2.0-litre petrol engines, while India's Creta offers the choice of 1.6-litre petrol and 1.4- and 1.6-litre diesels. A model that will be similarly sized to the ix25 and Creta is under development for Europe and it will be built in Turkey.
