Русский
Russia’s AGR Group and China’s Defetoo have begun producing Tenet A8 automobiles at the former plant of U.S. company General Motors in Shushary, St. Petersburg.
The AGR group stated that “The launch of production of Tenet A8 opens up a new stage in the development of the brand’s range of models and expands the production program for the AGR holding’s plant in Shushary: it now includes models from three Russian automobile brands—Jeland, Esteo, and Tenet. This step is confirmation of the holding and the Defetoo company’s gradual journey towards developing localized automobile production in Russia.”
The Tenet A8 will be produced with two different gasoline motors. The first version is fitted with a 2-liter turbine engine of 197 horsepower and the second with a 1.6-liter turbine engine of 150 horsepower. China’s Chery Arrizo 8 Pro served as the prototype for the automobile. AGR and China’s Defetoo completed the refurbishment of the automobile plant in St. Petersburg in February this year. The annual capacity of this site after the full ramp-up will reach 100,000 vehicles. The production line can produce up to 12 different types of bodies.
AGR Automotive Group, Volkswagen’s former asset in Kaluga, is also partnering with China’s Defetoo in the full-cycle production of Tenet automobiles in Kaluga. The Kaluga plant, located in the Grabtsevo industrial park, has the capacity to produce 225,000 automobiles per year. The St. Petersburg plant producers J6 and J7 Jeland crossovers. The prototypes for these models were models from Jaecoo, a sub-brand of China’s Chery.
AGR Holding CEO Andrei Karagin has previously stated that there are plans to localize the production of six models for the Jeland brand, from the J and C ranges, at the plant.
General Motors’ previous share of the Russian auto market was directed at luxury marques, and according to the Association of European Businesses (AEB), in 2021 GM delivered 2,377 Cadillacs (increasing +67% year on year) and 1,046 Chevrolets (+87%) to the Russian market. GM’s total sales in Russia in 2021 amounted to 3,423 vehicles, an increase of 1.7 times compared to the previous year. The company exited the Russian market in spring 2022, incurring losses of US$657 million. Since then, GM has closed several factories and laid off tens of thousands of workers. The GM share of the Russian auto market is now essentially zero. The Russian market absorbed 1.3 million new passenger cars (sedans) in 2025.
In contrast, China’s share of the Russian auto market has climbed from 5% to over 50% in the same period, often purchasing US assets cheaply and then refitting them for Chinese models. Changes in Russian law in 2024 have now discouraged the pure import and sale of ready-for-road vehicles and introduced policies that encourage foreign auto manufacturers to produce vehicles in Russia, often in collaboration with Russian manufacturers.
