Crisis automobile industry
New Russian Volga sedans are China clones
May 21, 2024, 8:08 p.m
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Russia wants to make its automobile industry independent of Western manufacturers. But the attempt to revive the former Soviet brand Volga is proving to be a challenge: the cars are only Chinese models that are assembled in Russia.
Russia has revived the former Soviet car brand Volga and presented three new models of the vehicle at an industrial fair. More than 60 billion rubles (a good 600 million euros) are being invested in the development of series production, which is due to begin this year, Russian media reported, citing the company.
The vehicles are said to roll off the assembly line at the well-known vehicle manufacturer Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (Gaz) in Nizhny Novgorod, but are officially built by the unknown company PLA (the abbreviation stands for: production of passenger cars). Their entry in the company register is only a few days old.
A video of the presentation with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin went viral when he complained that even the steering wheel was made in China. “I want the steering wheel to be Russian. That’s not as difficult as localizing the production of the gearbox and other elements,” he criticized. In fact, despite the prominently placed Gaz company logo, the new Volgas are only the assembly of vehicles from the Chinese car brand Changan. Only the front bumper and radiator grille are our own design.
Own productions have so far failed
After the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, the West imposed sanctions on Russia. As a result, practically all Western automobile companies have stopped their production, some of which was already heavily localized in the country. In the Gaz production facilities in Nizhny Novgorod, for example, VW and Skoda models rolled off the assembly line until the start of the war. Attempts to replace the departure of Western cars with in-house production have failed.
Last year, the relaunch of the Soviet brand Moskvich, which was celebrated by state media, ultimately turned out to be a copy of the Chinese small car JAC JS4. Overall, production figures fell sharply after the start of the war. While around 1.5 million cars were produced in Russia in 2021, last year there were only 720,000 vehicles.