Unison, General Motors in talks to make premium class cars in Belarus

The Belarusian car assembly company Unison and General Motors are in negotiations on making premium class cars in Belarus, BelTA learned from Sergei Shalai, Press Secretary of the Belarusian Industry Ministry, after a presentation of the project to assemble Opel Mokka cars of the General Motors concern in Minsk District on 20 May.

During the presentation Unison's Acting Director General Dmitry Yegorov said: “We are advancing relations with the company General Motors and plan to expand the product range primarily with premium class cars.” The presentation of the cars to be assembled is expected to take place in September 2015.

Sergei Shalai added that Unison started assembling Opel Mokka cars in May. It is the first model, which is batch-produced by General Motors and Unison in accordance with the framework agreement signed in June 2013. The Belarusian company is responsible only for making the cars while General Motors takes care of the pricing policy, target markets, warranty service and post-warranty service.

For the sake of launching the new manufacturing facility Unison bought, installed, and completed the tuning of equipment to assemble these cars with assistance of General Motors specialists. Unison personnel have been trained to use manufacturing and quality assurance practices used at factories of the American corporation all over the world.

Located in the village of Obchak, 10km away from Minsk, the car assembly enterprise was established in 1996 as a Belarusian-British joint venture Ford Union. In 2000 it was reincorporated into the private joint-stock company (ZAO) Unison. For over 15 years the company has been assembling a number of automobile brands, including Ford, KIA, and Samand.

General Motors and partners make automobiles in 30 countries. The company is a leader of the automobile market.