Taiwan's Yulon to Build Cars in Russia

Taiwanese Car: Russia will be the first foreign market for Taiwan's top carmaker.

Taiwan’s leading carmaker announced that it will begin building cars in Russia this year, according to China Times. The plan calls for Yulon Motors to export spare auto parts to Russia and assemble them into Luxgen 5 sedans in partnership with private Russian carmaker Edeerwei.

Yulon will invest between NT$5 – 10 bil. ($172 – $345 mil.) to develop new Luxgen models for the Russian market. The cars are projected to enjoy sales of about NT$1 billion ($33.5 mil.) during its first year in Russia.

The Luxgen concept was developed at Yulon’s Hua-chung Automobile Electric Technology Center center. Yulon became Taiwan’s leading carmaker by assembling cars for the Taiwan market under license from Nissan beginning in 1957. It sees the Luxgen project as a first step toward realizing its ambition of selling cars on the global market.

The Russian project was announced by CEO Kenneth Yen at Yulon’s year-end banquet on Jan. 20. Yen was in a triumphal mood because Yulon had reached its goal of NT$280 bil. ($9.37 bil.) in sales for 2011. Thanks to its success each employee was given a year-end bonus equal to over seven months of wages. Yen vowed to boost revenues to NT$300 billion (US$10 billion) for 2012.

Employees at the banquet occupied 182 tables, 20 more than the previous year. Those extra 20 tables accommodated the team from the Hua-chung center charged with producing a new car model each year.