The second Coming: Ravon is preparing to conquer the Russian car market

With the onset of the economic crisis, the automotive market in Russia has taken several steps back. Now the lost positions are gradually being won back, but not as fast as dealers would like. Against this background, the recent statement of the American-Uzbek company GM Uzbekistan, which produces cars under the unfamiliar brand Ravon, sounded like a phantasmagoria: to increase sales in 2017 by 28 times. But if you look at the history of the issue, it becomes clear that there is nothing fantastic in this Napoleonic plan. Ravon is the direct heir of Uz—Daewoo, a brand with a rich history of victories.

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It all started with the fact that in 1992 the South Korean Daewoo corporation, having decided to move to the east, docked with the Uzbek company Uzavtosanoat. The joint venture was dubbed Uz-Daewoo Auto and a mighty factory was built for it in the city of Asaka. While the bricks were being laid, the future employees of the plant were undergoing an internship in Korea.

The conveyor started moving in the summer of 1996. Daewoo Damas, Daewoo Tico and the famous Daewoo Nexia began to leave Asaka. At first, they were assembled mostly from imported components, but soon the production was localized, and the price tags became as liberal as possible. By the time the model range was replenished with the main subcompact hit of the 2000s Daewoo Matiz in 2001, the Uzbek plant had sent more than a quarter of a million cars to dealerships.

Cute and unpretentious in service "matiz" dispersed across the cities and regions of the CIS like hot cakes. As well as the updated Nexia. But the Daewoo company at that time was on the verge of death: the Koreans were forced to launch a bankruptcy process and were swallowed by the auto giant General Motors. For three years, Uz-Daewoo was on free bread, until in 2008 an alliance was created with an American corporation, called GM Uzbekistan.

Despite the reorganization, the brand and sales networks in the post-Soviet space continued to be called Uz-Daewoo due to previously concluded long-term agreements. A new milestone in the history of the Uzbek automotive industry was marked by the launch of the C-class model — Gentra. She retained all the advantages of her predecessors, but at the same time acquired equipment that meets the trends of the time.

In the fall of 2015, the hour of rebranding struck. Uz-Daewoo gave way to Ravon (translated from Uzbek — "the easy way"). This word can also be interpreted as an abbreviation: Reliable Active Vehicle ON (road), that is, a reliable and active car. To date, the logo in the form of the winged helmet of the ancient Roman god Mercury on the radiator grille is worn by four models: R2, Nexia R3, R4 and Gentra.

Active promotion of Ravon on the Russian market began in September last year, and in four months only 1800 cars were sold. But since January, the company has taken off the bat. In the near future, about 70 new dealerships and service centers will appear throughout Russia, and taking into account the excellent price-quality ratio, the stated bar of 50 thousand cars sold by the end of the year does not seem impossible at all.