Belarus JV to Assemble Opel Corsa, May Add Chevrolet

VIENNA – Unison, the British-Belarusian joint venture, will launch assembly of the Opel Corsa hatchback from semi-knocked-down kits next year.

A framework agreement, signed by GM Russia President and Managing Director James Bovenzi and Unison Director General Dmitry Egorov, calls for the car to be built at Unison facilities in Obchak, about six miles (10 km) from the country’s capital Minsk.

Belarus-assembled Corsas will be sold in the markets of the Customs Union, which includes Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

“We are happy to start cooperation with Unison, recognizing their many years of assembly expertise, professional personnel and perfect positioning in terms of parts supply from Europe and finished products logistics to the Customs Union markets,” Bovenzi says in a prepared statement.

Alexey V. Vaganov, Unison’s supervisory board chairman, says the agreement runs through 2017 and “provides the possibility to enhance the lineup,” meaning Unison may add assembly of other GM models in the future.

“We are considering the output of Chevrolet cars,” Egorov tells local media during the signing ceremony.

The Corsa SKD kits will be sourced from Opel’s plants in Eisenach, Germany, (the 3-door version) and Zaragoza, Spain (5-door). Plans call for the assembly of up to 7,000 units in the first year.

“The delivery of assembly kits to an expanding market means more business for our facilities in Eisenach and Zaragoza,” Peter Thom, Opel’s vice president-manufacturing for Europe, says in a statement.

The Corsa is the only remaining Opel volume model not assembled in the region but imported completely built-up from Germany and Spain.

With the Belarus agreement, GM is increasing its manufacturing footprint in the territory of the former Soviet Union.

In Russia, GM vehicles are produced or assembled at the GM Avto plant in St. Petersburg, the GM-AvtoVAZ joint venture factory in Togliatti and the contract assembler Avtotor in Kaliningrad. Chevrolets also are produced by GAZ in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

Smaller volumes of Chevrolet cars are assembled at the Asia Avto plant in Ustj-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan.

In addition, GM and the Uzbek state-owned company Uzavtosanoat operate a car plant in Asaka, plus a small SKD facility and an engine plant in Tashkent in Uzbekistan, which does not belong to the customs union.

Unison’s plant in Obchak, which will assemble the Corsa, was known as Ford Union in 1990s. Ford Union, a joint venture of Ford (51%), the Belarusian state (26%) and local Ford dealer Lada OMC (23%), assembled Ford Escort cars and Transit vans between 1997 and 2000.

The factory, operated since 2000 by Unison, launched low-volume assembly of Polish-made Lublin 3 vans in 2004. It assembled Iranian-made Iran Khodro Samand sedans in small volumes from SKD kits between 2006 and 2012.

Some months ago Unison announced plans to assemble Chinese-made Zotye Z300 sedans, but it is not clear whether that project will go forward.