Doninvest (russian: Финансово-Промышленная Группа Донинвест) was a Russian industrial group that manufactured cars in

Taganrog Taganrog ( rus, Таганрог, p=təɡɐnˈrok) is a port city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, on the north shore of the Taganrog Bay in the Sea of Azov, several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: History of Taganrog Th ...

and Aksay, Rostov Oblast. The firm produced

Daewoo Daewoo ( ; Hangul: , Hanja: , ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "dae" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerat ...

cars on license for the Russian market under an own brand. Their best known models were the

Doninvest Assol The Daewoo Lanos is a compact / sedan car produced by the South Korean manufacturer Daewoo from 1997 to 2002, and thereafter produced under license agreements in various countries worldwide. It has also been marketed as the Daewoo Sens, ZAZ Sens ...

, the

Doninvest Kondor The Daewoo Leganza is an executive sedan car that was manufactured and marketed by the automobile manufacturer Daewoo. The Leganza was available as a four-door Sedan with front engine, front-wheel drive, four door, five passenger sedan of type of ...

, and the

Doninvest Orion Daewoo Nubira is a compact car which was produced by the South Korean automaker Daewoo from 1997 to 2002 as a 4-door sedan, 5-door hatchback and a 5-door station wagon. Development The Daewoo Nubira (J100 platform) was released in 1997 refle ...

History

Doninvest Bank was founded in 1991 by Mikhail Paramonov. In 1995, the bank financed a plan to assemble

Pontiac Pontiac may refer to: *Pontiac (automobile), a car brand *Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief Places and jurisdictions Canada *Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality ** Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...

cars in the Krasny Aksay plant. The first

-branded vehicles began to be manufactured in 1995, at the Krasny Aksay plant. The first models were the

Daewoo Nexia Daewoo ( ; Hangul: , Hanja: , ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "dae" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomera ...

and Daewoo Espero. Doninvest began to manufacture own-brand vehicles on license in 1997, in an attempt to diversify the group holdings. In 1997 Krasny Aksay was sixth in the rank of the country's car plants, producing 13,200 vehicles. The bankruptcy of Daewoo in 2000 meant that the company only built 34 cars in the first nine months of the year. In May 1999 the company signed an agreement with Citroen to built the Orion M, as the rebadged Citroen Berlingo became known on the Russian market. It turned out to be the only Citroen marketed by Doninvest. Production on this model ended in 2003 with a total production run of 800–1,000 vehicles, and with it ended the group's partnership with Citroen. The

TagAZ TagAZ (russian: ТагАЗ, Таганрогский автомобильный завод, Taganrogskiy Avtomobilnyi Zavod, Taganrog Automobile Factory) was an automotive assembly plant located in Taganrog, Russia. An affiliated enterprise is the ...

plant entered a partnership with

Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate ("chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai ...

in 2001, but after the Korean carmaker built its own Russian factory in 2010, TagAZ ceased to be of interest to them. During its last years of operation, the factory assembled

Chery Chery Automobile Co. Ltd., trading as Chery and sometimes known by the pinyin transcription of its Chinese name, ''Qirui'' (), is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Wuhu, Anhui, China. Founded in 1997, it is curr ...

cars. TagAZ was declared bankrupt in January 2014; the Doninvest Bank followed during the same year.

Models

Car models produced by the company: *

(Daewoo Lanos,

plant) *

(Daewoo Nubira, TagAZ plant) *

(Daewoo Leganza, Krasny Aksay plant) * Doninvest Orion M (Citroen Berlingo)

References

External links

Official website
(archived) Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Russia Companies based in Rostov-on-Don {{motorvehicle-company-stub