Belarusian plant “Unison” is going to produce premium cars Hongqi under the brand of the Chinese concern FAW. Production is expected to begin on September 21, and the HS5 crossover will be the first model to be assembled at the plant.

Photo: openverse

Here are some key details:

Contract with Yandex taxi: Belarusian plant Unison is reportedly in talks with Yandex Taxi to supply Hongqi vehicles for their taxi service. The four-door models H5 and H9 are already included in the Yandex taxi classifier.

Assembly in Belarus: Assembly of Hongqi cars in Belarus will be carried out from car kits, with the first batch of 36 kits already delivered to the Unison plant. Expected that By the end of the year, about 1,000 Hongqi vehicles will be assembled near Minsk.

Price reduction: It is expected that production will be transferred to Belarus will reduce prices by about ten percent. As a result, the HS5 crossover could cost around $47,600 in Belarus, compared to a price of 4.99 million rubles (approximately $68,000) in Russia.

Production plans in Russia: Initially, it was planned to establish production of Hongqi cars in Russia at the former Mercedes-Benz plant in the Moscow region. However, there is currently no new information regarding this collaboration between Russia and the premium Chinese brand.

The move to manufacture Hongqi vehicles in Belarus could potentially make these premium vehicles more accessible to consumers in the region and expand the Chinese brand’s presence in the market.