During an extraordinary board meeting held on December 19, 2023, Hyundai Motor Co approved the sale of its stake in Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Russia (HMMR) located in St. Petersburg. The decision to sell comes as a result of the plant being non-operational since March of the preceding year due to the Russia-Ukraine war. Presently, Hyundai is in negotiations with Art-Finance, a local Russian company, to finalize the specific terms of the contract for the sale of its stake in the facility.
Despite the plant closure, Hyundai Motor Company intends to continue providing after-sales service for vehicles that were previously sold, taking into account the local situation in Russia. The Russian plant, inaugurated on September 24, 2010, marked Hyundai’s sixth overseas plant, following those in the US, China, India, Turkey, and the Czech Republic. At one point, Hyundai was the third-largest car seller in Russia, with the plant producing models such as Hyundai Solaris, Hyundai Creta, Kia Rio, and Kia Rio X-Line, boasting an annual manufacturing capacity of over 200,000 units, as reported by Korea Bizwire.