If you are told Lada, you will certainly think of the square cars still produced in the early 2000s and derived from the Fiat 124s of the 60s, but also of the Lada Niva, a global icon of the 4X4 market. If the Niva is still produced 45 years after its launch, the rest of the range of the Russian manufacturer has changed a lot.
Since Renault took a stake in the capital in 2007, the giant Togliatti factory in Russia has started a real revolution, going from 150,000 employees in Soviet times to just 30,000 in 2017. After years of losses, an overhaul total factory, suppliers and distribution network, Lada was finally making money and actively participating in the profits of the Renault group.
For Luca de Meo, Renault’s new boss, Lada had become as important a brand as Renault, Alpine or Dacia. Enough to nurture ambitions…
Niva, an iconic model
The symbol of this ambition was the renewal of the iconic Lada Niva. A model almost unchanged since 1977, once sold worldwide and still regularly monopolizing the Top 10 sales of passenger cars in Russia today.
By bringing together Lada and Dacia in a business unit, by making the group’s engines and chassis available to the future Niva, Luca de Meo had one ambition: to renew this irreplaceable model and make it the spearhead of Lada’s return to Europe. .
An ambition then confirmed by an Avtovaz export manager a year ago: “After consolidating our market share in Russia, after returning to the countries surrounding Russia, nothing prevents us from returning to Europe with a product strong, like a new Niva”.
Brutal stoppage
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24 was going to complicate things. First consequence, Renault announces its withdrawal from Russia. By selling its Moscow factory and its stake in Avtovaz, the parent company of Lada, for a symbolic ruble, the French manufacturer will cause an earthquake.
Overnight, joint projects ended. Has the next Niva, developed on a common platform with the future Duster, been thrown away? It’s hard to imagine that the project hasn’t been widely called into question.
Simplified Ladas
Added to this problem of technological cooperation is that of international sanctions and the difficulty of obtaining components for a Russian company.
The Vesta sedan, the best-selling car in Russia, will trade its Renault engine for an original Lada unit. It will also lose its navigation system, its ABS, its ESP, its LED headlights, its painted bumpers, as well as its aluminum rims replaced by sheet metal rims.
In the space of a few weeks of conflict, the level of safety of Lada returned to what we knew in 1988. During this time, the Russian government authorizes the local manufacturers to do without the last standards of polluting emissions.
What future ?
Under these conditions, it is difficult to imagine a return of Lada to Europe in the short or medium term. Even if the conflict in Ukraine were to end quickly, which seems hypothetical, we would not be ready to see Ladas in Europe again.
With production standards 30 years old, the absence of new models, international sanctions, a plummeting Russian market, all the lights are red for Lada.
And the Niva in all this? Little affected by the component crisis, now exempt from safety or emissions standards, it should continue to delight Russians for a long time to come and go straight towards its fiftieth birthday.