AvtoVAZ faced a significant challenge in meeting demand while dealing with a thin supply of components. The company’s leadership acknowledged that a large number of vehicles reached unfinished stages and remained in storage at factory sites and dealer networks. At the height of the issue, the backlog of incomplete cars reportedly surpassed 15,000 units, a figure cited during a speech delivered at a Barcamp event that year and reported by a major Russian newspaper.
Officials explained that pauses in production were occasionally necessary when essential parts were not available. Without these interruptions, the time required to finish vehicles would have grown even further, making the future assembly of completed cars less practical. In tandem with component shortages, the company also reduced output of higher-end configurations that offered more options. The aim was to better align production with the fluctuating supply chain, acknowledging that continuing to push for full-scale manufacture without reliable parts would risk creating a larger, longer backlog in the future.
Earlier reporting had indicated a notable reduction in the number of unfinished vehicles sitting in warehouses as part of an ongoing restructuring effort. The path forward for AvtoVAZ involved balancing production tempo with the realities of supplier delays, inventory management, and the need to maintain an orderly stock of vehicles for customers while gradually restoring output to normal levels.
Across these shifts, the company sought to preserve operational resilience and ensure that the plant could respond to market demand without sacrificing quality or timelines. The underlying message emphasized the prudence of pausing production when supply chains paused and the strategic choice to streamline variants until parts and logistics could reliably support broader, uninterrupted assembly lines.