Lead
Ukraine as a former Soviet republic,
It has a strong foundation in heavy industry.
But for now,
National automobile sales are mainly based on imported brands.
According to CCTV news, on the 24th local time, the Russian president issued an emergency live televised speech and announced his decision to carry out special military operations in the Donbass region. As of press time, the Russian army has been operating in many places.
The great power game, life and death. War would cast a shadow of great uncertainty over Ukraine and the world economy as a whole. The automotive industry, as an important industrial sector, is sure to suffer a huge blow.
So, what about ukraine's auto industry? Today we are going to talk about all aspects of Ukrainian cars.
Monument to the Fatherland of Ukraine (Batkivshchyna Maty)
Ukraine is an important industrial base in the former Soviet Union, and under the system of planned economy, an industrial system based on the development of heavy industry and defense industry has been formed. Ukraine's automobile industry was also established during the Soviet period, and it remained an integral part of the Soviet automobile industry until the collapse of the Soviet Union. The first Ukrainian car brand was born in the late 1950s.
After independence, Ukraine was the only Soviet republic other than Russia to produce all kinds of cars and auto parts, with an annual production of more than 200,000 units.
The main models produced in Ukraine are trucks, buses, trolleybuses, etc. In terms of passenger cars, CKD assembly or imported cars are currently the mainstream, and brands come from Europe, South Korea and China. Chery, Haval, JAC and MG on the mainland have been operating in the Ukrainian market for many years.
In recent years, Ukraine's economy has withered. The Association of Ukrainian Automobile Manufacturers (hereinafter referred to as Ukrautoprom) said in April 2018 that the ukrainian automotive industry has only 2% of the total production capacity, while car production is almost 98% lower than in March 2008.
Ukrautoprom's latest data shows that Ukrainian domestic brands will produce 8,153 vehicles in 2021, an increase of 64.7% year-on-year. Among them, the production of cars was 7342 units, an increase of 74.7% year-on-year.
In addition, in January 2022, the sales of first-hand new cars of Ukrainian international brands were 5323 units, a decrease of 7.2% year-on-year. The top 10 international auto brands in china by car sales are Renault, Toyota, Chery, Hyundai, Skoda, Peugeot, Nissan, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi and Kia. It is worth noting that mainland car brands Chery, Haval, JAC and MG ranked 3rd, 22nd, 24th and 26th respectively. Among them, Chery's sales rose sharply in January, with a year-on-year increase of 134.8%.
Let's take a look at each of the three major Ukrainian car brands.
ZAZ
ZAZ (Zaporizhia Automobile Building Plant) is a major Ukrainian car manufacturer headquartered in the southeastern city of Zaporizhia. It also produces buses and trucks and is best known for its former parent company, AvtoZAZ.
Passenger car manufacturing in Ukraine began in 1959. From 1960 to 1994, Zaporozhye produced a total of 3,422,444 ZAZ Zaporozhets models.
In 1975, the factory was merged into AvtoZAZ Holding Company, which was reorganized into a joint-stock company in the 1990s.
When the AvtoZAZ-Daewoo joint venture was established with Daewoo Automobile in 1998, ZAZ was allocated a 50% stake on behalf of AvtoZAZ to the new company. Daewoo Automobile made a lot of investment and established its own model production, while retaining the original ZAZ brand.
A bus produced by ZAZ
After the bankruptcy of Daewoo Automobile in 2001, UkrAVTO acquired AvtoZAZ Holdings in 2002. All AvtoZAZ manufacturing facilities were re-integrated into ZAZ. The company even adopted a new logo. The Daewoo portion of the joint venture was acquired by the Swiss joint venture Hirsch & CIE in 2003.
In 2011, ZAZ began full production of Chery A13 under its own brand ZAZ Forza. That same year, production of the Chevrolet Aveo (T250) was transferred from the FSO auto plant to ZAZ.
Currently, ZAZ has assembly plants in Poland, Libya, Egypt and Kazakhstan.
Bogdan
Bogdan Corporation is Ukraine's leading automobile manufacturing group, including several car and bus manufacturers in the country.
Bogdan was founded in 1992. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was formed by the merger of a number of former Soviet enterprises. Initially, the company was a distributor of various Russian car brands, and later became a dealer of Kia again. In 1998, the company acquired the Cherkasy auto repair plant specializing in the maintenance of Russian PAZ and GAZ GAZelle buses. In 1999, the factory was transformed into "Cherkasy Autobus" and began producing its own bus Bogdan.
In 2004, the company signed a general agreement with Isuzu to use the Isuzu brand on the buses exported by the company.
The group's plant is located in Cherkasy. This is the most modern automobile manufacturing plant in Ukraine. The Cherkasser plant can produce between 120,000 and 150,000 cars a year, but the reality is bone-chilling. The plant assembled the Bogdan 2110, Bogdan 2111, and Bogdan 2310 (pickup) from 2009 to 2014.
At the same time, Bogdan also assembled models such as hyundai accent, Hyundai Tucson and Hyundai Elantra. In 2013, Bogdan and JAC Motors started the CKD assembly of the JAC J5 sedan in Ukraine.
At present, Bogdan is also a dealer of Great Wall Haval and JAC, and at the same time provides follow-up maintenance services for car owners.
KrAZ
This is a Ukrainian factory that produces trucks and other special vehicles in Ukraine. Most of the company's models are heavy-duty off-road models. The factory merged several other factories across the country as a holding company, in addition to which the company also has a certain financial background.
KrAZ-6446
In addition to trucks, KrAZ is also an important vehicle supplier to the Ukrainian army, producing a wide range of vehicles to equip the Ukrainian army.
KrAZ Spartan