Volkswagen closed its office in Nizhny Novgorod and left the production site at GAZ. This was told to socialbites.ca by two sources familiar with the situation. Volkswagen Group Russian press service announced that the local office in Nizhny Novgorod is closed from today.
“Given the high level of uncertainty in general and the inability to predict the potential resumption of production in Nizhny Novgorod,
“Volkswagen Group Rus” has decided to initiate the official procedure to close its office in Nizhny Novgorod on 07/05/2022″,
– said the official representative of the company Natalya Kostyukovich “socialbites.ca”.
Most of the employees of Volkswagen Group Russian in Nizhny Novgorod accepted the offer to leave the company voluntarily. Kostyukovich said that currently the number of employees who will be affected by the process of closing the office is about 60 people.
A socialbites.ca source familiar with the situation at the factory said that factory workers were offered to quit on their own for up to 6 salaries, depending on the length of service. GAZ Group does not plan to liquidate the assembly line itself. Skilled workers will go to work at GAZ.
GAZ Group aims to get the site loaded.
“This production plant (where Volkswagen is assembled – socialbites.ca) is owned by GAZ, and GAZ does not plan to liquidate it, but aims to provide alternative loading of these capacities,” the press service of the Gorky Automobile Plant told socialbites.ca. .
Representatives of large car dealer holdings say that stocks of Volkswagen and Skoda cars already assembled in Nizhny Novgorod will be enough for sale for a few more months.
“The warehouse stock is enough for 3-4 months. Sergey Bityugov, general manager of AvtoSpetsCenter Vnukovo, told socialbites.ca that these cars are sold slightly worse than in the same period last year, this is due to the instability of the exchange rate and the serious increase in prices in March-April.
According to him, AvtoSpetsTsentr Vnukovo is considering several options for filling warehouses, including the import of cars and parallel imports through the common customs area of the EAEU countries.
“Assessing the market situation as a whole, we can expect the current stock of Volkswagen cars to be sufficient by the end of this year.
It is extremely problematic to make longer-term forecasts on this issue in the current conditions, Alexander Kochetkov, CEO of Avilon Volkswagen, told socialbites.ca.
All Skoda models for the Russian market, with the exception of Rapid, were assembled at the plant in Nizhny Novgorod, so we can say that the share of sales of Skoda cars assembled in Nizhny Novgorod is significant.
Directly in the Volkswagen brand, the share of cars assembled in Nizhny Novgorod was low, since only one model was assembled there – Taos, added Kochetkov.
Sergey Burgazliev, an independent automotive industry consultant, said that Volkswagen’s losses from the termination of contract assembly at GAZ could amount to tens of millions of dollars, but this investment is insignificant compared to how much the German concern invested in its own factory in Kaluga.
“It’s totally clear what GAZ has to do with this site – look for a new partner, tool kit supplier. It’s a good, modern, flexible production, people know how to make high quality cars. There is no one to sell this site and favorable conditions for attracting a new partner will have to submit,” he said.
He believes it is quite realistic to get government support on preferential terms for SPIC and to find such a partner among Chinese, Indian or Malaysian automakers within six months.
“I know that Volkswagen’s investment in Nizhny Novgorod is about means of production.
The question is not hundreds of millions of dollars, but tens of dollars. Compared to the investments in the factory in Kaluga, where about 0.5 billion euros were invested, this is not so much, ”Burgazliev summarized.
Contract assembly of Volkswagen and Skoda cars in Nizhny Novgorod began in 2013 with the production of Volkswagen Jetta and Skoda Octavia. Later, the range of cars produced there was expanded with Skoda Kodiaq and Karoq crossovers, as well as Volkswagen Taos. By February 2021, the company produced 400,000 vehicles using the full cycle method in Nizhny Novgorod. In April 2022, the production of Volkswagen and Skoda cars in Russia was stopped due to problems with the supply of components, since then the employees of the enterprise have been idle with the preservation of 2/3 of their wages.
Source: Gazeta
