Korean automaker Hyundai has halted the reconstruction project at the former General Motors plant in Shushary, located in the Leningrad Region, with no announced timeline for resumption. The halt is reported by Business Petersburg, which notes the indefinite pause in efforts tied to the site.
The planned renewal of the Shushary plant was slated to start in the spring and involved a budget of about 36 billion rubles. While the plan called for refurbishing existing workshops, the work never commenced in reality. Construction of new facilities was also unable to begin. The reasons for these delays remain unclear and undisclosed.
Business Petersburg suggests that Hyundai might reconsider the project’s concept and may decide against manufacturing high-cost models at the site. It is implied that the factory could shift away from producing expensive vehicles, with speculation that the former GM site might have hosted lines for models like the Hyundai Tucson, Hyundai Palisade, and Kia Sportage at some stage in the plan.
Earlier reports indicated that equipment installation for an updated Lada Vesta program at AvtoVAZ would reach completion by 2023, allowing the subsequent production run of the updated model to proceed. The current status of that initiative has continued to evolve in the automotive industry landscape, with developments subject to corporate and regulatory factors.