Ukraine’s ZAZ May Assemble Opel and Chevrolet Models
The possibility of Opel and Chevrolet assembly by ZAZ is based on a new special duty imposed by the government on a large segment of imported cars with gasoline engines.
VIENNA – Ukraine’s largest auto maker, ZAZ, may assemble GM vehicles, Ukrainian media report.
The company is considering assembly of Opel and Chevrolet cars from complete-knocked-down kits, Andrey Kunakh, general manager of Ukrainian Opel and Chevrolet importer General Avto Group, tells LIGABusinessInform.
ZAZ may assemble previous-generation Opel Astra and Zafira models, Kunakh is quoted as saying. Production could launch before the end of this year. The cars currently are manufactured in Germany and Poland.
An assembly agreement with Chevrolet could be signed in June, LIGABusinessInform says. The Chevrolet Lacetti would be the first model made.
Vehicles assembled locally would be priced about 5% below completely built-up imports, and the difference could increase with growing volumes, Kunakh is quoted by the news agency.
Kunakh says there is demand for up to 10,000 Chevrolet and 3,000 Opel cars per year in Ukraine. However, that figure includes all models sold in the country, not just those that are candidates for local production.
The possibility of Opel and Chevrolet assembly by ZAZ is based on a new special duty imposed by the Ukrainian government on a large segment of imported cars with gasoline engines.
Assembly of GM cars would not be new for ZAZ. The plant built Chevrolet and Opel models from semi-knocked-down kits between 2003 and 2009. The Opel Astra II was assembled from CKD kits at that time.
ZAZ and GM have various manufacturing partnerships. The Ukrainian auto maker is producing two older GM models: the ZAZ Lanos/Sens (old Daewoo Lanos) and ZAZ Vida (previous-generation Chevrolet Aveo).
ZAZ also exports Lanos assembly kits to General Motors Egypt, which sells the locally assembled car as the Chevrolet Lanos in the Egyptian market.
In the past, ZAZ manufactured a Chevrolet-badged Lanos version destined for the auto maker’s Russian distribution network.
The previous-generation Chevrolet Aveo was produced from 2007-2011 at the FSO plant in Warsaw, Poland, which belongs to Ukrainian auto maker UkrAvto, the parent company of ZAZ and General Avto.
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