Is the plant new
In 2014, Motorinvest organized the assembly of Great Wall SUVs. The distributor of the brand in Russia was then the company Irito, which built a full-cycle plant. The project lasted a year, but it could not withstand the ruble’s collapse. In 2016, the site was relaunched with the Changan brand. Three years of work followed by another long downtime.
Now comes the third attempt with the Evolute brand.
Again the Chinese
Great Wall and Changan are Chinese brands. Evolute was created specifically for the Russian market, though in origin these models are closely related to Dongfeng. The brand has been present on the market for a long time, yet it does not rush to settle in. It was not mentioned at the launch event. It seems the partnership with Russia now avoids heavy publicity, including for Asian companies.
History appears to repeat itself: Chinese cars are once again assembled at Lipetsk.
The assembly remains SKD. Taillights and a bumper, a battery, an electric motor and a chassis are mounted on the body along with the interior.
Meanwhile in reserve
The Lipetsk region plant is fully equipped from earlier projects. Nothing has been disassembled, only preserved in good condition. Unpack, reprogram, and production can resume. There are lines for welding, anti-corrosion treatment and painting. The total operating time across all past years reaches about 20,000 vehicles, leaving a substantial remaining resource.
But for now Evolute does not require any of this. Machines are assembled using SKD by a crew of around 150 people, with a handful of posts in the last workshop enough to keep things moving.
Over time, localization will grow. First, bodies will be delivered disassembled from China, and later stamping of domestic metal will be mastered on site.
The equipment sits idle, waiting for production to begin.
What are the plans?
When production ramps up, a two-shift operation will need about 240 workers, with another 900 to 1,000 hired for assembly and welding. The final work at Motorinvest is manual, using manipulators. Automation is inevitable with thousands of print runs, yet investing in costly equipment has not made sense so far.
Capacities are designed for 100,000 to 120,000 cars per year. That target surpasses the Haval brand, which was placed in the first production phase at its Tula factory (80,000 vehicles). With Evolute planning to roll out electric vehicles, the scale is remarkable. This year, the company aims to master three models: the i-Pro sedan, the i-Joy crossover and the i-Van minivan. Two more crossovers will follow. The sedan is intended for taxi use. In the capital region, demand is estimated in the tens of thousands of cars annually, with potential for car sharing, business and private sales.
The task now is to convince Russian buyers that the Chinese electric car can stand up to Japanese or German models with internal combustion engines, and in certain aspects may even excel. There are reasons to be hopeful.
- “Behind the wheel” can also be read in Telegram.