The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have ordered dozens of Chinese Haval H9 SUVs and plans to place an additional order for several hundred civil vehicles.
The story was first reported by Kitayskiye avtomobili, which cited an internal source in the Russian army.
“Haval won the tender for the supply to the headquarters in districts, the [SUV] H9. They have already arrived [in the army]. That is, the equipment has passed all the tough qualifications. Haval will be the main command vehicle. The contract for an extended period,” the source said.
Most likely, the appearance of the H9 in the Russian military service is associated with the localization of production in the Tula region. Russian government agencies cannot buy imported cars.
According to a report, Haval H9 SUVs produced by Haval, a sub-brand of Great Wall Motors, already were spotted at the Alabino training ground in the Moscow region and in one of the military towns.
On top of that, one Haval H9 of the Russian military was spotted in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Haval H9 is a Chinese SUV produced by Haval, a sub-brand of Great Wall Motors that debuted at the 2014 Beijing Auto Show and commenced production in November 2014.
The Haval H9 is the largest vehicle ever developed by Great Wall Motors with the drive train being a new all-wheel-drive system and is the second brand new SUV with a body-on-frame chassis developed by Haval, following the Haval H3 and Haval H5. It competes with the likes of the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado and Mitsubishi Pajero. The H9 is available in both 5-seater and 7-seater configurations.
At the same time, the local SUV-maker also produces such cars.
