The former Volkswagen plant in Kaluga will emerge from its almost two-year downtime in the first half of 2024.
This was announced in an interview with the Russia 24 TV channel by the Governor of the Kaluga Region, Vladislav Shapsha.
[...] Leaders leave, but nature abhors a vacuum. Therefore, we have found technological partners for these companies [those that bought the enterprises from foreign auto giants that left the country, - ed.] - at the end of last year, the former Volvo was launched - now it is the Ural plant, which has begun mass production of our heavy trucks. And the former Peugeot-Citroen is also producing cars serially today. The first batch is already there, the line will expand this year. Volkswagen is next in line. In the first half of this year, I am sure, it will start working. The final touches to these negotiations have already been made.
Before that, he called the start of the plant the beginning of this year. But he referred to commercial secrecy as a reason not to announce the exact launch dates and partner automakers.
At the Volkswagen plant in Kaluga, Volkswagen Polo, Volkswagen Tiguan and Skoda Rapid were produced until the spring of 2022. After the start of the special military operation, the plant, like many other plants of foreign automakers in Russia, was in idle mode. It has gone through many adventures and eventually became the property of the Russian Art-Finance LLC associated with the Avilon holding.
After the deal, Volkswagen Group Rus LLC was renamed AGR Automotive Group. The company announced a large-scale rebranding and 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.
At the end of November 2023, it became known that the downtime at the former Volkswagen plant was 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, as well as write off debts on subsidies for the purchase of real estate and cars.
The acquisition of the former Volkswagen plant is not the only deal that Art-Finance has with major global automakers that have curtailed production in Russia. In December 2023, this company became the owner of the former Hyundai Motor plant - Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus in St. Petersburg. It has been idle since March 1, 2022, before that it produced Hyundai Creta, Hyundai Solaris, Kia Rio and Kia Rio X-Line. The plant's downtime for 2024 has not been extended. On January 9, staff returned to their workplaces, and the first cars with the possible use of warehouse stocks of components are planned to be produced there by the middle of the year.