Engine in trade: European and Japanese cars become "Chinese"
European and Japanese cars are gradually becoming virtually "Chinese". Their main unit, engines, and car service stations in Russia, instead of repairing the original ones, offer to replace them with analogues manufactured in China. Sales of such engines for installation on used foreign cars in the Russian Federation increased by 15-20% over the year, the Union of Car Service Companies told Izvestia. Their replacement is 5-7% cheaper and takes 10 times less time than the overhaul of the "native" unit. By the end of the year, up to 10 thousand such engines were sold in the country: in China they are produced mainly for cars of German, Japanese and Korean brands.
Why engine repairs have become unprofitable
Deliveries of new engines for used cars are replacing the overhaul services at service stations (service stations). In 2025 alone, imports from China of such power units to the Russian Federation increased by 15-20% and reached about 10,000 units, the Union of Car Service Stations told Izvestia. The same number of refurbished and used engines are sold. The units can be installed on popular C and D class car models of European, Japanese and Korean brands that were actively sold in Russia until 2022.
— New engines began to gain popularity about three years ago. Now a system of their use has been formed, which displaces the services of major repairs of old engines," Ilya Plisov, a member of the board of the Union of Car Service Stations, a technical expert, told Izvestia.
Instead of a complicated and time-consuming procedure, the service station client is offered to install another unit with documents. This is 5-7% cheaper and 5-10 times faster than overhauling an old engine, the expert noted.
— The cost of a working hour from a qualified service station foreman is such that in some cases it is more economical to order a new power unit, — says Ilya Plisov. Moreover, Chinese suppliers have expanded their product range and offer new replacement engines for many popular models of Hyundai, Volkswagen, Ford, Toyota, Mazda, etc., the expert noted.
The overhaul of an engine for a foreign car in 2025 cost on average from 100,000 to 250,000 rubles and above, while it takes a considerable time, and the guarantee of the result largely depends on the availability of original spare parts, Alexey Ivanov, owner of the Alliance Trucks commercial vehicle dealership network, told Izvestia. A new engine from China for the same brand is sometimes cheaper, and assembly installation takes significantly less time.
— For some engines, repairs with work and materials cost 340 thousand rubles, and engine replacement with installation costs 200 thousand rubles, said the head of the car service. XXAUTO.pro Maxim Bakhvalov is in Ivanovo. — For more expensive diesel cars, the difference is even greater — repair is 800 thousand rubles, and replacement with a new one is 600 thousand rubles. Customers like it.
According to Alexey Ivanov, remotorization is also economically beneficial for service stations: removing and installing the engine assembly takes less technological operations than disassembly, boring, honing and assembly.
However, the quality of Chinese units varies greatly depending on the manufacturers, he noted.
According to Alexey Ivanov, there are manufacturing plants in China with a serious reputation. For example, FAW-VW assembles EA888 engines at the Dalian plant, and these are not unnamed counterfeit copies, but units with factory documentation and warranty. The Beijing Hyundai plant in China is mass—producing engines for Kia Rio and Hyundai Solaris, the very ones that have been bestsellers on the Russian secondary market for years.
— But there are also unnamed replicas from small factories at low prices, which are also supplied to the Russian Federation, — said Alexey Ivanov. — Their quality may be low, and the savings during installation are questionable.
Installing a new motor is not always advisable.
— For example, if you need to repair the cylinder head or replace rings, camshafts, then it is recommended to repair the native internal combustion engine, as its resource may still be quite large, — said Roman Timashov, Deputy General Director for VIP-direction of AvtoDom Group.
But if the engine has problems with the cylinder block, crankshaft (it is not supplied separately on some models) or the overall wear of parts is high, and repair time is tight, then the option of installing a new Chinese engine is what is needed, he believes.
According to Ilya Plisov, the engine can be replaced within one to two days, and the overhaul of the old unit can take one to two weeks.
To avoid problems with software and electrics, most often only the hardware is changed, that is, the unit with all the parts and the head, and all the attachments and the electronic control unit remain from the old motor, the expert noted.
How will the car re-motorization market develop?
The popularity of the service for installing new engines is due to the increase in prices for major repairs of internal combustion engines. In addition, many popular models have also risen in price, which encourages owners to continue operating existing cars, Sergey Rakov, head of the AVTORUS service department, told Izvestia.
However, the market has not yet accumulated enough reviews and test scores to assess the cost-effectiveness of remotorization instead of overhaul, the expert believes.
"The trend towards remotorization of foreign cars will significantly change the service station market, but it will not completely displace major repairs," said Alexey Ivanov from Alliance Trucks. — The overhaul will remain for rare models and trucks. However, for the mass passenger fleet, especially Korean and German brands, which form the backbone of the used market, new engines from China are a serious alternative.
According to Sergey Rakov, 90% of new Chinese units come from private factories and only 10% from trusted suppliers to global companies. The quality level of the motors varies, and there is no guarantee for many of them.
Therefore, all market participants believe that suppliers should still be screened out according to quality criteria and prices adjusted.
Motors from China are still a new phenomenon on the market, and it is difficult to predict how this segment will develop, said Dmitry Danshov, founder of the Mechanics Group. However, the replacement service for contract used motors has already taken root and has its own volume of demand.
Another area of the market that will soon develop is the restoration of removed units and their resale, Alexey Ivanov believes. The volume of the engine rebalancing industry in Russia is estimated at 70 billion rubles, with more than 370 machine-building plants and 70,000 workshops operating in the country that can take on these tasks, the expert added.
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