Vortex — The TagAZ Brand for Licence-Built Chery Models

Vortex at a glance

TagAZ before Vortex

The plant behind Vortex was built in the late 1990s. Construction began in spring 1997 under a licence and technology from Daewoo Motors, financed by the company Doninvest with an investment of more than US$260 million in the 1990s. In 1998 Doninvest began pilot assembly of the Daewoo Lanos and Nubira from semi-knocked-down kits. Daewoo-based models under its own name followed, such as the Kondor, Orion and Assol and the Aksaj Dozor.

In the 2000s the plant became a contract assembler for other brands. It built the Hyundai Accent from 2001, the Sonata from 2004, the Porter light truck from 2005 and the Elantra and Santa Fe from 2008. Hyundai assembly continued until spring 2012. TagAZ also sold models under its own badge, including the Tager off-roader, the Road Partner and the C10, C190, Vega and Master. Its total output reached 106,322 vehicles in 2008 and fell to 29,240 in 2009. The plant's own story is told in the Taganrog Automobile Plant history.

The Chery licence

Vortex was TagAZ's name for cars from Chery, the Chinese manufacturer founded in Wuhu in 1997, whose first car, the Fengyun, was based on the bodyshell of the first SEAT Toledo. By the late 2000s Chery was licensing its models to assembly plants in many countries, from Egypt and Iran to Ukraine, Italy and Uruguay. TagAZ took three of them, a compact saloon, a small saloon and a compact SUV, and gave them new names and a new badge. No Vortex model was designed at Taganrog; each was a Chery, either rebadged or modified.

Vortex Estina

The first Vortex was the Estina, a four-door compact saloon. It was a rebadged version of the facelifted Chery A5, which Chery built in Wuhu from 2006 to 2010 and which was also known as the Chery Fora and Elara. Assembly from semi-knocked-down kits began at Taganrog in 2008. The A5 was itself based on the General Motors J platform and was a facelift of the Daewoo Lacetti, so the car linked back to the Daewoo origins of the plant. A later Vortex Estina FL-C was rebadged from the Chery E5, the A5's successor.

The base car was 4,552 mm long with a 2,600 mm wheelbase and weighed about 1,290 kg. Its ACTECO engines, developed with AVL, were a 1.6-litre with 87.5 kW (119 PS), a 1.8-litre with 97 kW (132 PS) and a 2.0-litre with 102 kW (139 PS). Buyers could choose a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic gearbox. Chery's specification included ABS, EBD and ESP.

Vortex Corda

The Corda was a modified Chery Amulet, the car also known as the Chery A15, Cowin and Flagcloud. Chery had launched it in August 2003 as an updated Fengyun and successor to the A11, which made it a distant descendant of the first-generation SEAT Toledo. Assembly at TagAZ began in October 2010, and the Wikipedia article on the Amulet dates sales of the Vortex Corda from 2012. In China the car was replaced by the facelifted Cowin 2, built from 2010 to 2016. The Taganrog version is described in more detail in the Vortex Corda article.

Vortex Tingo

The Tingo was the brand's main model. It was a modified version of the first-generation Chery Tiggo, code T11, which made its debut as a concept at the 2005 Shanghai Motor Show and was built from 2005 to 2014. Its styling was often compared with the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V. The base car was 4,285 mm long with a 2,510 mm wheelbase, and engines of 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 litres gave 87 to 102 kW (118 to 139 PS). A supercharged 1.6 with 110 kW (150 PS) followed with the facelift of September 2010. Both front-wheel and four-wheel-drive versions of the Tiggo existed.

TagAZ began assembling the Tingo in October 2010. A citation in the TagAZ article reports that the Tingo accounted for about one third of the plant's output in the first half of one year. The same car was built in Italy as the DR5, in Uruguay, Egypt, Indonesia and Iran. In 2011 ANCAP tested the Australian Chery J11, the same model, and gave it two stars out of five.

The end of Vortex

The Vortex models depended on TagAZ, and TagAZ depended on assembling cars for other companies. Hyundai assembly ended in spring 2012, and on 21 January 2014 the company was declared bankrupt. No date for the end of Vortex production is given in the sources used here, but the brand had no future without the plant. Chery itself continued to grow; its first-generation Tiggo stayed in production in China until 2014 and was then renamed Tiggo 3. Vortex models on 1cars are listed in the Vortex catalogue.

Vortex timeline

Landmark Vortex models

Photo gallery