Русский
Russia’s AGR Holding and China’s Defetoo are expanding their joint venture and completing the technical refurbishment of the former United States-owned GM Motors auto plant in Shushary, St. Petersburg.
The equipment has already been installed at the plant and will shortly begin the full production cycle. AGR acquired the GM facility in 2024, where the vehicle production and technology facilities required a full overhaul. GM exited the Russian market in 2022. As part of the takeover, around 600 containers of equipment and technological systems have been delivered.
The plans are to use the new site to produce automobiles of the new Russian Jeland auto brand. It will produce up to 100,000 vehicles each year after it enters full production. The models offered will be the Jeland rebrands of the Jaecoo J7 hybrid and Jaecoo J8 SUV.
AGR and Defetoo planned to localize production of Jeland automobiles in Russia in the first half of 2026. As such, Jeland will become the partners’ second joint project after Tenet, which involved localizing production at the former Volkswagen site in Kaluga in summer last year.
Also last year, AGR planned to localize the production of Jeland automobiles at the former GM site in St. Petersburg, which it owns. The prototypes for these automobiles are models from Jaecoo, a sub-brand of China’s Chery, which are also the basis for the Tenet crossovers, which are becoming increasingly popular on the Russian market.
