On July 16, Lifan Motors held grand new factory ground-breaking ceremony in Lipetsk Oblast, Russia, indicating that the wholly-owned factory of Lifan Motors is comprehensively starting establishment. The vice premier of the State Council of China Wang Yang and the vice minister of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia Voskresenskiy sent their letters of congratulations, and they said, the new factory project of Lifan Motors will be the economic and trade cooperation bridge between China and Russia

The new factory is located in Lipetsk Oblast special economic zone, covering 600,000㎡, which will be established to be the modernized welding, painting and assembly workshops. The new factory is planned to be finished in 2017, and at initial stage adopts CKD assembly, with planned annual capacity of 60,000 units after put into operation, then gradually realize localization, for the purpose of final annual capacity of 200,000 cars. In the meantime, Lifan new energy car attracting a lot of attentions lately is expected to enter the market in the near future.

The governor of Lipetsk Oblast Korolev delivered a speech at the ground-breaking ceremony. He said, Lifan auto factory project is the largest investment project of Lipetsk Oblast special economic zone. And the government of Lipetsk Oblast will fully support the project which surely will be the paragon for Chinese-Russian economic trade cooperation. As learned, the sound industrial base and supporting facilities of Lipetsk Oblast will contribute to the further development of Lifan Motors. And the new factory project of Lifan Motors will drive the economic growth of Lipetsk Oblast as well as related industrial development.

As learned, In October 2014, under the joint witness of the premier of the State Council of China Li Keqiang and the premier of Russian Federation Medvedev, the board chairman of Lifan Group Yin Mingshan and the governor of Lipetsk Oblast Korolev signed the investment agreement in the White House. Lifan factory in Lipetsk Oblast, as the 22rd factory of Lifan Group in global, is the 6th overseas factory, of which the investment is USD300 million. It is the third wholly-owned complete car factory following Uruguay and Ethiopia. The vice president of Lifan Group said, Lifan Group has kept No.1 sales among Chinese auto brands for consecutive five years. And Russia has already become one of the most important overseas strategic markets, which makes LIFAN determined to enlarge investment in Russia and realize more development. The found-breaking establishment of the new factory fully indicates Lifan Motors’ great confidence and commitment to Russian market.

As introduced, Lifan new factory project is making its smooth process as planned. Besides, “ LIFAN will establish R & D center in Russia, developing new products in response to the demands of Russian customers,” said Mark Timber. Lately Lifan Group announced the i.Blue1.0 new energy strategy (Intelligent Blue Strategy) in future development that LIFAN will realize the joint development in traditional power and new energy. As planned of Lifan Intelligent Blue Strategy, by 2020, LIFAN will realize the annual production of 300,000 electric and hybrid cars, establishing 500 battery changing stations where the changing time will not be more than 3 minutes. Make full use of big data and internet technology to realize the energy-saving service. Mark Timber said, though we are facing the Russian low temperature in winter, LIFAN has already solved the problems on battery technically. We firmly believe, in the near future, LIFAN can also provide Russian customers with brand new electric cars and hybrid cars.

The governor of the Lipetsk Oblast Korolev and Chinese minister-counsellor in Russia Zhang Di, the senator of Duma Mikhail, the director of regional development division of Russian Economic Development Ministry Ruslan and the director of automobile industry division of Russian Industrial and Trade Ministry Andrey and other state government officers presented the ground-breaking ceremony.