Jeland: New Russian Car Brand Launches to Replace Sportage
The Jeland brand will be used for producing cars from the Chinese company Jaecoo.
The launch of the Russian car brand Jeland was announced by AGR Holding, which already produces cars under the Tenet and Solaris brands. If the days of the latter seem numbered, the Tenet project has had a good start, and the new Jeland brand is from the same family: it was created in partnership with the Chinese company Defetoo (i.e., Chery).
Jaecoo J8 is closely related to the Chery Tiggo 9, which is also produced as the Tenet T9 in Kaluga.
«The creation of the Jeland brand is part of the long-term strategy of AGR Holding and Defetoo to form a modern Russian automotive ecosystem based on international technological cooperation, localization of key competencies, and sustainable development of production,» emphasized AGR Holding.
The updated Omoda C5 crossover is part of the production plans for the St. Petersburg plant.
No other details were reported. Production of the first batch of Jelands is planned for the first half of 2026.
Omoda C7 is another model considered for manufacturing at the facility in St. Petersburg.
We wrote earlier about the possibility of the Jeland brand appearing. According to unofficial information, under this name, cars from the company Jaecoo, which is part of the Chery conglomerate, will be produced at the St. Petersburg auto plant in Shushary: we are talking about the Jaecoo J6, J7, and J8 models. In parallel, production of Omoda cars under the Onives brand is set to start in Shushary, and media already report on the transfer of production of the C5 crossover from Kaliningrad«s Avtotor to the plant in Shushary. In the future, it may be joined by the C7 crossover.
The plant in Shushary was purchased by AGR Holding from Hyundai, but it should not be confused with another St. Petersburg enterprise of Hyundai in Kamenka, where Solaris cars were produced. The Shushary plant was originally built by GM, but it stood idle since 2015 when the corporation decided to leave Russia. Later, it was bought by Hyundai for the production of mid-size crossovers like the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage, but it did not manage to restart the enterprise before 2022.
Thus, AGR Holding is increasingly consolidating production capacities and becoming the main partner of the Chery brand in Russia, although the connection between the companies is officially denied. Jaecoo crossovers were produced in test mode at the plant in Kamenka (Solaris), but after the final break with Hyundai, the candidate for replacement is named as company GAC.
