Belarusian BelGee eager to make electric car for Belarus-Russia Union State

Geely cars are getting more and more popular with Belarusians year after year. The company used to focus on making crossover cars in the past. Now the company is busy expanding its lineups of electric cars and sedans. SZAO BelGee Director General Gennady Svidersky revealed what new products motorists should expect in the future and sketched out the company's future plans at the roundtable session “Electric transport: Reality and prospects” as part of the Belarusian Energy and Ecology Forum, BelTA has learned.

Speaking about global trends, Gennady Svidersky pointed out that electric transport is developing most dynamically now.

The executive noted that as many as 4.72 million electric vehicles were made in Q1-Q3 2022. There are plans to make about 6.5 million electric cars by the end of the year. Apart from that, the share of electric cars in car sales has been steadily staying at 10% for the last two months. Belarus has every chance of joining this dynamics depending on linear production and exploitation of electric cars. The length of Belarusian roads is rather small but the quality is good. In addition, decent infrastructure made up of charging stations is available in Belarus.

In his words, Belarus could use more electric cars. As far as their output is concerned, there are certain limiting factors. “Over the course of five years we had to fully renew the model lineup and new models mean new costs for any manufacturers. These costs need to be recouped. This is why we cannot advance so fast. Nevertheless, we believe that electric transport is a priority task for BelGee,” he stressed.

The company certified the first electric car model Geely Geometry C and offered it to the Belarusian market last year. According to Gennady Svidersky, these cars have been in use virtually this entire year.

The executive went on saying: “We are getting good feedback about the model, this is why we've decided to continue making this electric car. We will ship an additional number of these cars to dealerships at the end of the year. We hope the number of these electric cars on the market will grow next year. By the way, such an electric car can travel for 550km on a full charge. All the other necessary parameters are also secured. I'd like to note that electric cars represent not only an environmentally friendly means of transportation. They also offer advantages of safe driving if we consider driverless operation. On the whole, motorists expressed only one wish – the company should pay attention to cheaper models.”

BelGee has been in touch with JAC Company in order to offer budget electric cars. The companies designed two E10X models, which were thoroughly tested.

Gennady Svidersky said: “This electric car has more modest parameters with a price to match ($12,000 according to preliminary estimates). However, we believe an electric car even with these parameters will sell. There were some organizational issues with JAC Company, this is why we've handed over all the R&D to the Unison plant so that the enterprise could present these models in the future.”

Apart from that, Geely Company has come up with a new budget electric car Geely Geometry E. “We are now in negotiations with Geely Company in order to get documents and adapt these cars. If next year's negotiations are successful, this model will be available for sale in Belarus,” the executive noted.

BelGee is also intent on making an electric car with as many Belarusian components as possible, Gennady Svidersky noted.

“We are conducting a number of works and consultations together with the Mechanical Engineering Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Apart from that, we are in negotiations with Chinese companies and AvtoVAZ companies. Finding a promising electric car platform and using the Mechanical Engineering Institute's R&D advances regarding electric car components is the idea. We will also utilize modern manufacturing technologies that the BelGee factory has. The matter is under consideration now. Once everything is reconciled, we will offer more information about the plans to create a Union State car. This project could pay its way and could be mutually beneficial regardless of Western sanctions and could be less dependent on the Chinese automobile industry,” the BelGee director general summarized.