The former Volkswagen plant in Kaluga will launch in 2024, although the first cars were supposed to be assembled this December. Regional authorities are announcing the launch of the plant at the beginning of the new year.
I just can't announce these negotiations that are underway, and the results we have obtained. Because this is, firstly, a trade secret, and secondly, we just see how competitors catch our every word and immediately run to put a spoke in our wheels. But we will still launch this plant. What we didn't do at the end of this year, we will do at the beginning of next year. And everything will develop as it should.
The Volkswagen plant in Kaluga produced Volkswagen Polo, Volkswagen Tiguan, and Skoda Rapid until the spring of 2022. After the start of the SMO, the plant, like many other plants of foreign automakers in Russia, found itself in a state of downtime, and even for a while fell under arrest.
In the spring of 2023, information appeared about the purchase of the enterprise by the Chinese auto giant Chery. However, at the end of May, the Russian assets of Volkswagen AG were bought by Art-Finance LLC, a Russian company associated with the Avilon holding. The same one that almost acquired the former Hyundai Motor plant for seven thousand rubles.
After the deal, Volkswagen Group Rus LLC became AGR Automotive Group. The company announced a large-scale rebranding and the launch of new models to the automotive world of Russia. Car owners were told that AGR would continue to provide service support and sell spare parts for Volkswagen, Audi, and Skoda.
In October, the head of the region assured that the plants previously managed by Volkswagen, Peugeot, Citroen, and Volvo would soon reopen. According to him, a direction of development had already been determined for all enterprises. Officially, negotiations on the Volkswagen plant had not yet been completed at that time, and the authorities were choosing a reliable technological partner. At the same time, according to the official, the first car kits were supposed to arrive as early as the beginning of December 2023.
At the end of November, it became known that the downtime at the former Volkswagen plant had been extended again, until February 29, 2024. If an application for dismissal was signed before the end of November, employees of the plant were then promised to pay three salaries, compensation for vacation, and write off debts on subsidies for the purchase of real estate and cars.
Other plants have been a little luckier so far. On December 14, the former Volvo plant started operating - it now produces Ural NEXT all-wheel drive three-axle trucks. Soon, employees of PSMA RUS in the Kaluga region were also invited to the workshops.
The head of the region announced the launch of the plant in his Telegram channel on December 19.
A pilot batch of 48 cars will be assembled here by the end of the year. Mass production will begin in 2024. Of course, everyone is interested in knowing the model of local assembly. The company will definitely announce this at the start of sales.
Peugeot, Citroen, Opel and even Mitsubishi were produced there until the spring of 2022 and the downtime.
