As you know, AVTOVAZ made a difficult decision – to transfer the production of Lada Vesta from Izhevsk to Tolyatti. From the point of view of production efficiency, it is quite logical: the productivity of the Lada-Izhevsk plant (up to 32 cars per hour) is not enough to meet the potential demand for the model. And thanks to the capacity of the conveyor belt in Togliatti, twice as many cars can be produced.
But in Izhevsk there was a well established and verified process for many years (since 2015), will the quality of Lada Vesta change due to the move? And this takes into account the fact that some car components for the model will probably have to be obtained from suppliers from friendlier countries, as well as to set up their own production.
Expert opinion
Nikita Gudkovydeputy editor-in-chief of the magazine “Behind the wheel”:
– The performance (or rather, the actual speed) of the conveyor belt has a minimal impact on the quality of the car. If the quality management system is of course well structured. In many ways it was the reorganization at the AVTOVAZ factories that made Renault realize in recent years that the Ladas have changed, become pleasant to sit in and reliability has increased.
The question is whether it will be possible to maintain quality assurance at the level it was under the French. Theoretically, VAZ employees have everything for this: methods, technologies, experience with Renault. However, quality control is always a compromise between the requirements to produce as many cars as possible and as cheaply as possible (i.e. loss of quality) and meeting standards, norms and consumer characteristics inherent in the design of the car. Here everything depends on the priorities that the top management of the factory will set. That is, there would be a desire.
Well, import substitution can also go smoothly, if at the same time the opinion of the quality service is not rejected in favor of political or temporary benefits. Obviously Vesta will be simplified – mainly in terms of electrical architecture and options.
But such large elements as the heating and ventilation unit, the steering rack, the rear suspension or almost all components of the braking system seem to have to be mastered again in production. All nuances are possible here – the main thing is to follow them and avoid loss of quality of commercial vehicles.