Automotive news
After many rumors, we can say that car production has resumed at the former Hyundai Motors plant in St. Petersburg. Dealers received the first cars of the Solaris brand, this was announced on March 12 by the press service of the plant, now called the AGR Automobile Plant.
The company’s new management has repeatedly announced plans to resume production. At first it was announced that the first cars would roll off the assembly line before the end of 2023, but then the date was postponed several times. However, earlier this year it was announced that 800 former employees of the company would be rehired, and last month a team of highly qualified technical specialists who had previously worked at the Volkswagen plant in Kaluga were invited to help.
The plant sent the first cars of the Hyundai Solaris model, well-known in Russia, to dealers. They will now be produced under the names Solaris HS, Solaris HC, Solaris KRS, Solaris KRX. They will be a sedan, a compact crossover, an urban sedan and a cross-hatchback. These models will be assembled on the basis of the Hyundai Solaris, Hyundai Creta, Kia Rio and Kia Rio X-Line kits, which were previously produced at the company.
On March 13, the price of the most affordable car produced by Avtozavod AGR became known. We are talking about the Solaris HS sedan, the price declared by dealers for this model is indicated in the range from 1.9 to 2.1 million rubles. At the moment only the version with automatic transmission is available. In fact, it will be the well-known Hyundai Solaris sedan. It should compete with the domestic model LADA VESTA.
The former Nissan plant, now Avtozavod St. Petersburg LLC, began producing the Xcite horsepower, explained March 13, the director of the company Ivan Milov at a meeting with the city governor, Alexander Belov. Experts and car enthusiasts recognized it as the previous generation Chery Tiggo 7 Pro, well known in the Russian market. The price of a “new” car assembled in Russia has not yet been officially announced, but experts note that, taking into account protection duties, the cost of customs clearance and recycling fees, it should be slightly lower than the of a model imported from China. .
It is worth noting that until 2022, St. Petersburg was the leader in the production of passenger cars in Russia. The factories of the world’s leading car manufacturers successfully operated here: Toyota, Ford, GM, Hyundai, Nissan. After the introduction of Western sanctions, everyone, one way or another, left Russia. The companies have now been transferred to new owners who plan to produce automotive products there. In this sense, good news is the opening on March 11 of the Engineering Development Center in St. Petersburg, where new mechanical engineering technologies will be developed. The center was created on the basis of the St. Petersburg State Maritime Technical University. One of the main areas of work is the development and creation of components for the automotive industry.
The city’s new traffic scheme will adapt to public transport
Once every five years in St. Petersburg, the Integrated Traffic System is updated, as provided by a special law. The previous time was in 2019. This year, the city authorities concluded a contract with NIPI TRTI LLC, according to which the contractor will analyze the current traffic situation in the northern capital. To do this, data on urban road congestion from GPS and GLONASS systems will be used and surveys of pedestrians and cyclists will be carried out.
Traffic management work is being carried out in the direction of priority rights of way for public transport, to this end the capacity of the roads is increased and the operation of traffic lights is adapted. In recent years there have been important achievements in this direction. After the introduction of paid parking in the central area of the city, road congestion decreased by 50% and the speed of public transport increased by 2.5%.
Clarification on the possibility of publishing information about drone attacks
The operational headquarters of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region made adjustments to the ban on the publication of photographs and videos with information on the consequences of the use of drones. Information in this regard was published on March 12 on the regional government website. Information about drones can be published if obtained from the official information resources of the governor, lieutenant governor and the Department of Defense, the message says.
All other prohibitions remain in effect. The dissemination of information that reveals the location of the Ministry of Defense forces, the security systems of strategic facilities, as well as any information on the consequences of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles from any other source is prohibited.
subway construction
Good news for the builders of the St. Petersburg metro. On March 13, at a meeting of the city’s industrial council, Alexander Beglov announced that two tunnels would be built at the Obukhov plant. The first will be ready this year. They will be able to build tunnels with a diameter greater than 5.63 meters. They will be used for work on the Krasnoselsko-Kalininskaya and Frunzensko-Primorskaya metro lines. For the Obujov plant this will be the first experience in the manufacturing of this type of products.
“This year we will receive the first tunneling shield and next year the second. Ours, national production”said the governor.
The governor recalled that currently only two subway panels are being built in the city, both were manufactured in the DPR in Soviet times, in 1985 and 1989.
This is the first encouraging news about the construction of the metro in St. Petersburg after a series of bankruptcies of the St. Petersburg Metrostroy. The company’s properties and real estate are now up for auction.
russian presidential elections
As throughout the country, the main political event of last week was the Russian presidential election. The voting process took place without major incidents. The most notorious incident occurred on March 15, when a student threw a Molotov cocktail against the wall of school No. 358 with an information sign for polling station No. 1396. As a result of the fire, the sign and the wall were damaged. That same day she was detained and arrested until May 14; She could face a maximum sentence of 8 years in prison.
The observers confiscated a bright green bottle from another voter with which he went to the polling station on Pestel Street. After removing the bottle, he participated in the vote.
The city’s turnout in the presidential elections was 74.38%. The votes were divided as follows: Vladimir Putin received 81.65%, Vladislav Davankov – 6.99%, Leonid Slutsky – 5.15%, Nikolai Kharitonov – 3.49%.
Source: Rossa Primavera
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.