Hyundai cars assembled in Russia become most popular foreign model for third month in a row
MOSCOW. July 7 (Interfax) - The Hyundai Solaris, produced at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus Plant in St. Petersburg and available on the market since January 2011, has been the most popular foreign car in terms of sales for the third month in a row, the company said in a statement.
A total of 10,833 Hyundai Solaris cars were sold in June. The model was the leader in foreign car sales for April 2011.
Hyundai doubled sales in January-June 2011 to 67,213 cars in comparison with the same period of 2010, including sales growth for the Sonata, ix35 and Santa Fe models.
Since August 15, 2011, Hyundai Motor plans to introduce a third production shift at the plant in St Petersburg and commence production of Kia Rio vehicles. Production of Kia Rio should reach 20,000 this year and around 100,000 Rio for 2012.
Using round-the-clock operating system, the enterprise plans to boost production capacity to 13,000 cars a month by September 2011 (currently stands at 10,000 units). The total workforce will come to 2,100 people with the launch of the third shift.
Hyundai Motor Plant in St. Petersburg commenced serial production of the budget model Solaris sedan in January. The plant also produces the Solaris-Hatchback.
The construction of the plant started in June 2008. Total investment comes to 500 million euro. The company plans to reach design production capacity of 200,000 vehicles anually by the end of this year.