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According to the Russian "Gazette" quoted sources as saying that the Russian government has approved the sale of Volkswagen's Kalu processing plant, which is the last step for Volkswagen to withdraw from the Russian market. Reported that the buyer or the Russian Avilon holding company, but so far, it is not clear the size of the planned transaction. One source said the two sides had not signed any documents so far, but another source said a deal between Volkswagen and Avilon was under way, but did not provide further details.

So far, Volkswagen has not responded to the news, while the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade and Avilon declined to comment.

According to the official website of Volkswagen Group Rus, Volkswagen Group currently has two major factories in Russia, Kaluga and Nizhny Novgorod, with a total of 4800 employees, of which the Kalu processing plant is its flagship plant, accounting for about 4000 employees. In 2006, Volkswagen Group established its company LLC Volkswagen Rus in Russia, and the construction of the Kalu processing plant began in the same year. In November 2007, Volkswagen Group Rus began to produce cars at the Kalu processing plant with an annual production capacity of 225000 vehicles, mainly producing Volkswagen brand Tuguan, hatchback version 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 March 2022, Volkswagen suspended operations in its Russian car business and tried to sell its plant in Kaluga, Russia, due to the war between Russia and Ukraine and disruptions in the supply of spare parts. As the plant was almost at a standstill, a source said at the time: "Volkswagen is considering withdrawing from the Russian market completely."

In addition to the Kalu processing plant, another Volkswagen plant, Nizhny Novgorod, recently faced two lawsuits in Russia. On March 20th, a court in the Russian region of Nizhny Novgorod froze all Volkswagen Group assets in Russia after Gorky Motor Factory (hereinafter referred to as "GAZ") asked it to claim more than 15.5 billion rubles. GAZ believes that Volkswagen Group plans to withdraw permanently from the Russian market and sell the remaining assets to a third party in the near future. If Volkswagen Russia sells shares in its legal assets, Volkswagen will no longer have any other assets in Russia, so it has applied for guarantee measures. As a result, Volkswagen's process of cutting its Russian operations has also been hampered.

On April 4, a Russian court announced a partial lifting of the freeze on the assets of Volkswagen in Russia, while there were reports that Volkswagen might sell its factory to local investors. However, shortly after the lifting of some of the freeze on Volkswagen's assets in Russia, Volkswagen was claimed another $348 million by the Russian GAZ Group on April 11, when court records showed that Gorky Automobile Plant, a unit of the Russian GAZ Group, filed a lawsuit in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod regional court on April 7 to recover 28.4 billion rubles ($348 million) from Volkswagen.

On April 13, a Russian court ruled that Volkswagen's assets in Russia would not be frozen, saying there was no evidence that Volkswagen would try to evade financial obligations in two lawsuits filed by Russian carmaker GAZ.

After the two lawsuits were settled, Volkswagen's decision to divest the Russian market also ushered in new developments in its business planning. It should be noted that Volkswagen Group has a total investment of more than 206 billion rubles in its Russian business and is one of the largest foreign investors in the Russian automobile industry. Among them, Volkswagen Group has invested more than 1 billion euros in the Kalu processing plant. Between 2006 and 2021, Volkswagen Group invested a total of 2.06 billion euros in Russia. If Volkswagen successfully sells the Kalu processing plant, it means that Volkswagen Group will have only one plant in Nizhny Novgorod in Russia. At the same time, Volkswagen will also face a large loss after the sale of the Kalu processing plant.

Volkswagen is not the only car company considering withdrawing from the Russian market. According to statistics from Yale University in the United States, more than 1000 companies have announced their withdrawal from the Russian market since the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. These include French, Japanese and Korean brands. As early as May last year, a number of car companies successively chose to "survive without arms" to withdraw from the Russian market. Among them, Renault, which accounts for nearly 10% of the Russian car market, took the lead in announcing its withdrawal from the Russian market, followed by Toyota, Nissan, Ford and Mazda. Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz also plan to sell assets in Russia. In addition, before withdrawing from the Russian car market, car companies, including Toyota and Nissan, have set "repurchase" clauses, which the industry sees as a way for them to return to the Russian market one day.

Data show that Volkswagen Group produced a total of 170300 new cars in Russia in 2021, including 118000 at the Kalu processing plant and 52300 at the Nizhny Novgorod plant. In terms of sales, Volkswagen Group accumulated sales of 199200 vehicles in Russia in 2021, accounting for 11.9% of the Russian market share.

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