by They want to restart the Moscow Renault factory. They are planning to establish the production of ‘Moskviches’, and this is not a joke – this was stated by the mayor of the city, Sergey Sobyanin.
As is known, Renault sold AvtoVAZ and all its Russian assets for as little as 1 ruble. The Moscow factory was transferred to the city’s balance as part of the deal, and the mayor’s office came up with the crazy idea to revive ‘Moskvich’. They decided to keep jobs and not send staff to potato fields.
By the way, it was at this enterprise that ‘Moskviches’ were produced during the USSR. For those who don’t know, in 1945 a whole Opel factory was taken from Germany to Moscow and the Opel Kadett was turned into the first ‘Moskvich-400’. Then in 1998 the enterprise went bankrupt and over time it was acquired by Renault.
The partner in the revival of ‘Moskvich’ will be (unexpectedly!) KamAZ. It’s not yet clear what kind of cars they plan to produce there, but it is worth recalling that KamAZ’s only passenger model was the Oka. However, considering the fact that even VAZ is preparing to assemble economy versions of cars without a catalyst and ABS, the Oka fits perfectly into the new reality.
