Avtotor adds production of Hyundai light-duty trucks in Kaliningrad
By Jim Gibbins - 31st January 2019
Russia / South Korea – Hyundai Truck and Bus Rus of Moscow (an official representative office and subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company of Seoul, South Korea, established in February 2017) has started series assembly of the Hyundai HD35 and Hyundai35City light commercial vehicle range (with gross weights stated as 3.5 tons) at the Avtotor plant in Kaliningrad. This follows the start of CKD assembly production in November 2017 of Hyundai’s HD78 medium-duty truck range and SKD assembly of the heavy duty truck, HD120.
As part of this project to assemble Hyundai truck models, a new welding operation was set up for the smaller HD35 and HD35 City models and the painting line and assembly sections were upgraded. Avtotor, as the contract assembler of these vehicles, also commissioned a new painting chamber for truck chassis and a ‘sprinkler chamber’ to check the air and water tightness of the cabs. A test bed for testing the braking system has been also installed.
