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A German trade union said Tuesday that Volkswagen will close one of its two production sites in Russia, according to media reports.

In fact, as early as March 3 this year, Volkswagen Russia two factories have announced the suspension of production. At that time, Volkswagen Group issued a statement on Twitter saying that Volkswagen's two factories in Kaluga and Nizhny Novgorod in Russia stopped production and stopped exporting cars to Russia. At the same time, Volkswagen Group also stopped exporting cars to Russia, and employees of Volkswagen's Russian factory were told to stop production until May 12.

At the beginning of April, Russia's Vedomosti reported that Volkswagen's two Russian factories continued to shut down for more than two months due to the Russian-Ukrainian war and the interruption of parts supply. Sources said production was expected to resume in June-July this year. Subsequently, Russian satellite news agency reported that Volkswagen Group did not disclose the resumption date of the Russian factory, Volkswagen Group Russian company news office said, Volkswagen factory in Russia resumption period unknown, The factory temporarily suspended, Until received notice of resumption.

The Volkswagen Group currently has two plants in Russia: the Kaluga plant and the Nizhny Novgorod plant. The automotive industry has previously reported in detail the development of these two plants, Volkswagen Group in Russia in 2006 established LLC Volkswagen Rus, the same year began the construction of the Kaluga plant, Volkswagen Group has invested more than 1 billion euros in the Kaluga plant, between 2006 and 2021, Volkswagen Group in Russia a total investment of 2.06 billion euros; and Nizhny Novgorod plant belongs to GAZ Group.

The automotive industry pays attention to the official website of Volkswagen Group Rus, which currently has 4800 employees in Russia, of which the Kaluga plant has about 4000 employees. Volkswagen's Kaluga plant in Russia, located about 170 kilometers southwest of Moscow, began producing new cars for Volkswagen Group in 2006, with a maximum annual capacity of 225,000 vehicles, mainly producing Volkswagen brand Tiguan, three-box Polo and Skoda Rapid models. At the same time, the plant is also responsible for assembling Audi brand Q7 and Q8 SUV and producing gasoline engines for various models. In 2021, the Kaluga plant produced 118,000 vehicles. Volkswagen's Nizhny Novgorod factory in Russia is located about 430 kilometers northeast of Moscow. The factory began assembling Taos models and Skoda models for Volkswagen Group in 2011, with an annual production capacity of 132,000 vehicles. According to statistics, the factory produced 118,000 vehicles last year, mainly producing Skoda brand Mingrui, Kodiak and Kolok models.

According to statistics, Volkswagen delivered about 216,000 vehicles in Russia in 2021, accounting for about 2.4% of the company's global car sales, so stopping new car sales business and factory operation in Russia may be a relatively large loss for Volkswagen. Of course, in addition to Volkswagen, since March this year, a number of automobile enterprises have successively announced the suspension of supply, sale and production in the Russian market. According to incomplete statistics, many automobile enterprises, including Nissan, Aston Martin, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley, Rolls Royce, etc., have been affected by the same reasons and have successively issued official statements saying that they have stopped their automobile sales business in Russia. Ford, Renault, Toyota and BMW have closed factories in Russia.

According to relevant data statistics, the cumulative sales volume of Russian cars in 2021 was 1.667 million vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 4.3%. It is understood that the total capacity of Russian automobile factories exceeds 2 million vehicles, and the original plan is to produce about 1.5 million vehicles this year. However, due to the shortage of parts and the impact of European and American sanctions, some automobile enterprises operating in Russia (Nissan, Toyota, Kia and Hyundai) are forced to close their production lines in Russia, which will further aggravate the situation of automobile shortage in the Russian market. AFS said that Russia is expected to lose 760,000 to 815,000 vehicles this year and the loss is "irreparable".

The latest data show that from January to May this year, the cumulative sales volume of Russian cars was 318114 vehicles, down 52% year-on-year, of which 83.5% fell year-on-year to 24268 vehicles in May, a further increase from April (78.5% year-on-year decline in April and 62.9% year-on-year decline in March), the lowest level since 2006.

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