Ex-Renault Russia plant to produce Moskvitch vehicles

A well known Soviet-era nameplate could be returning.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has viewed multinationals from McDonald’s to Renault withdraw from the Russian current market.

The latter’s belated departure has opened the doorway for the return of the Moskvitch brand name.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin explained on his blog the nationalised Renault manufacturing unit will be repurposed to produce Moskvitch-branded cars and trucks.

“The international operator has determined to close the Moscow Renault plant. It has the proper to do this, but we are unable to permit 1000’s of workers to be still left devoid of work”, said Sobyanin in translated remarks.

“In 2022, we will open a new webpage in the historical past of the Moskvitch.”

The mayor reported the intention is to have most of the crew remaining at the plant, which will to begin with develop combustion-engined automobiles. Later, it’ll get started manufacturing of electric powered vehicles.

The town of Moscow, truck and bus producer KAMAZ, and the Ministry of Business and Trade will get the job done jointly to localise the generation of automotive components in Russia.

It’s unclear what these reborn Moskvitch automobiles will glance like.

The Renault Group sold its 67.69 per cent stake in AvtoVAZ, Lada’s dad or mum business, to the Russian Central Analysis and Progress Auto and Motor Institute (NAMI), and Renault Team shares in Renault Russia have been bought to the Moscow City entity.

The offer includes a clause letting the Group to buy back again into Russia at a selection of details in the upcoming 6 years.

“The closing of these transactions is not issue to any conditions, and all expected approvals have been acquired,” the Renault Group said in a assertion.

When some automakers, like Volkswagen, Toyota, and Ford, ended up rapid to halt output and stop most get the job done in Russia just after it invaded Ukraine in February, Renault was a lot more careful in its method.

It even restarted production in late March, only to backtrack a day afterwards.

At the time Lada mentioned it was seeking to swap “some essential imported factors with alternative solutions”, and doing work on special versions of its vehicles “with lowered exposure to imported components”.

Nevertheless it never ever exported cars to Australia like Lada, the erstwhile Moskvitch worry did export automobiles to Europe.

It was a single of quite a few automakers in the Soviet Union. Other well-acknowledged issues integrated: AvtoVAZ, which developed Lada vehicles and survives these days GAZ, which developed big Volga sedans and ZiL, which generated significant sedans and limousines for Soviet officers.

The title, also spelled Moskvich, suggests “a native of Moscow”, though the business was established as KIM in 1930.

Its first vehicle was the KIM-10, the to start with passenger motor vehicle built in Russia. Production was suspended because of to Planet War II and, right after the war finished, the firm started manufacturing the Opel Kadett-inspired Moskvitch-400 in 1946.

The following two generations of Moskvitch were conservative, rear-wheel push compact autos, nevertheless in 1986, the model launched its first front-wheel travel design, the Aleko.

This was heavily motivated by the Simca 1307/Chrysler Alpine that had been introduced a 10 years prior.

The firm suffered just after the drop of the Soviet Union, not only for the reason that the industry opened up to much more appealing imports but also due to the fact of its possess financial complications.

Production of the Aleko ended in 1997, nevertheless ostensibly much more upmarket sedan and coupe variations below the 2142 banner carried the torch for the Moskvitch model until finally it was axed in 2001.

The business declared bankruptcy in 2006 and was liquidated the subsequent year.

Extra: Renault confirms sale of AvtoVAZ