Business news

MINSK, 20 March (BelTA) – A car design bureau will be established in Belarus in H1 2018, BelTA learned from Belarusian First Deputy Industry Minister Gennady Svidersky on 20 March.

The official said: “One of the tasks I am facing is setting up a bureau to design cars in the first half of the year so that we could start accumulating competences and start creating on our own at some point. So far we’ve built a modern factory but the car was developed by our colleagues. We intend to get competences, including in the area of design and development.”

Gennady Svidersky went on saying that negotiations had been held with Chinese partners — Geely Company — to discuss prospects of the joint venture BelGee producing electric cars. “They have done some R&D on electric cars. But Geely Company does not intend to make electric cars outside China for now. We should respect their choice,” stressed the official.

Gennady Svidersky said he believes that as far as the production of electric motion vehicles is concerned, Belarus should rely on what has already been done in this direction. “If we have secured technological advances in passenger transportation, if we see that electric buses can be used in Minsk, then it is advisable for us to bolster this competence. If we have [the automobile engineering company] MAZ and can modify a utility vehicle, it is advisable to use the available chassis to introduce technical innovations,” he said.

As far as electric cars are concerned, the official noted that Belarus should focus on developing competences with regard to certain nodes and parts. “The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus is busy developing an accumulator. If we can make it cheaper and better, we should. In my opinion, it is risky to invest in the development of an electric car if you don’t have a school of thought of your own. Because we see that even forecasts of leaders — for instance, Tesla Company — can deviate from actual facts by a lot,” said Gennady Svidersky.