According to the President of the Russian Federation, in March, the auto production collapsed three times, and in April – five times. Therefore, he demanded to saturate the market with new cars.
The Russian authorities have finally paid attention to the crisis situation in the automotive industry. Vladimir Putin, within the framework of the economic forum in St. Petersburg, held a meeting with representatives of the largest automakers and admitted that the industry is on the verge of disaster. This was reported by the Izvestiya publication.
The leaders of AvtoVAZ, GAZ, KamAZ and the Sollers group (which owns UAZ) arrived at a meeting with Putin. The Russian president called the cause of the collapse of the car market not an attack on Ukraine or sanctions, but problems with the supply of components.
“The situation is not easy: a number of contractors and suppliers of car factories were and are still abroad, or suspended deliveries, or announced their departure from our market. Compared to a year earlier, in March this year, the output of the domestic auto industry in Russia was three times lower, and in April – five times lower,” Putin said.
At the moment, out of 20 Russian car factories now produce products only AvtoVAZ, UAZ and Chinese Haval. Moreover, at VAZ, the conveyor works intermittently, and the most popular Lada Vesta model will be returned to production no earlier than the beginning of 2023. And the Avtotor plant sent employees to pick berries instead of cars.