Sergei Sobyanin opens serial production at Moskvich plant

Moskvich automotive plant started batch assembly of new vehicles. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov and KAMAZ PTC CEO Sergei Kogotinattended the opening ceremony. Moskvich-3 crossover was the first model that started assembly after the plant had resumed operation.

“In less than 6 months, we were able to restart the production abandoned by Renault when they left the Russian market. Many probably thought that would be the end of the Russian automotive industry. In reality, that became another push to restoring our production. Today, we are launching a new model under the old Moskvich brand. This is an event of historical significance,” said Mr. Sobyanin.

According to him, for the time being, the plant will be doing DKD assembly, but plans to start their own platform production in just a few years.

“What’s more, it will be an electric car: Moscow has rich experience with electric transport: from rail trams to river boats. Electric transport, electric cars’ presence on the streets of Moscow is increasing. This is the future from both the technology and urban ecology point of view,” the Moscow Mayor said.

He thanked the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Russian President and Mr. Manturov personally for their support, as well as the workforce of KAMAZ, the key project partner.

Denis Manturov called the decision to preserve automotive production in Moscow fair, correct and responsible. “We were, of course, initially surprised by Renault’s decision; after all, they have been developing this site for years and, historically speaking, it has always served to make cars. But, thanks to the decision made quickly in partnership with Moscow authorities and KAMAZ, we were able to find technologies that are going to let us make 600 cars this year, including 200 electric cars and 400 cars with internal combustion engines,” said the Minister.

According to him, the new production plans to become technologically independent by 2027. In the nearest future, the plant is expected to submit proposals on the special investment project expansion that would state process specifications and the model range of cars to be made.  “That will entitle Moskvich to preferences under the consumer demand stimulus program the government plans to run in the coming years,” added Mr. Manturov.

The new Moskvich

Moskvich-3 is a crossover model popular in big cities: relatively large but compact, comfortable and cost-efficient, suitable for everyday driving alone or with family.

In line with the modern international classification, the reborn Moskvich brand will include models with numerical codes indicating the car’s size and its position in the family. Depending on the car modification, codes may include letters. For example, the letter “e” in a code means an electric car.

KAMAZ CEO Sergei Kogotin seemed confident that the models selected for production will be popular with Russian consumers, because they have been adapted to the domestic market. “I think it was really important to restore car production in the country after all the foreign brands had left. And although we have nothing to do with that business anymore, we landed the Moscow Government, our key partner, process support in designing this business,” he said.

As for Moskvich-3’s appearance, it has geometric body contours with modern LED optics and a recognizable running and parking lights shape. The compact crossover is 441cm long, 180cm wide and 166cm tall. It has a 262cm wheelbase and a large passenger compartment with comfortable, ergonomic seats. The model comes with a gas turbine motor (1.5 liters, 150 HPs, 210 Nm) paired with automated CVT or six-gear manual transmission.

Also on board are a digital dash panel with 10.25” display and a multimedia system with a similar screen that can be connected to smartphones using Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, a surround view camera system and an electric sunroof.

 Moskvich-3 will start mass sales in Moscow and the rest of the Central Federal District in December.

In March 2022, Renault (France) announced that they were going to close down their plant in Moscow and leave the Russian market. The former owner didn’t leave any technologies, design documents or parts that could be used to keep production running. They did, however, leave the 2021 payroll debt: RUB 691 million that the Moscow Government paid out as soon as they took ownership of the plant.

For many years before that, the Renault Group did everything they could to cut out Russian automotive components suppliers and switch production to foreign-made parts. That’s why production at Moskvich had to be restarted virtually from scratch.

It’s not possible to start making entirely Russian cars off the bat today: an own platform, widely used and modern needs to be developed first and domestic production of key automotive parts set up.

In order to resume work as soon as possible, the Moscow Government signed a Technology Partnership Agreement with KAMAZ PTC, the long term, trusted partner in urban transport projects and the largest automotive company in Russia. They have lots of experience in crisis management and DKD assembly with subsequent increasing localization. Thanks to their top-class engineering tradition established in the recent years, KAMAZ PTC is now among the Russian leaders in developing and producing commercial and electric-powered vehicles and innovation drones which also will conductive to the rebirth of Moskvich.

The process will take place in three stages over six years.

The first stage (November-December 2022) will involve the plant starting DKD assembly of Moskvich-3 cars, gradually increasing their localization. The development of in-house broad-purpose electric car platform and an effort to set up key components production will take place in parallel.

During the second stage (2023), CKD assembly will start along DKD, and the localization rate will rise thanks to the increasing number of Russian suppliers (body parts, steering power components, braking systems).

At the third stage, Moskvich will start production of an own-designed electric car with key components made in Russia (batteries, engines and reduction units), using a broad-purpose platform.

To support production in Pechatniki, the Yuzhny Port transport and logistics center (TLC) will be established at the same time at the Central Transport Hub, together with Russian Railways. The project will be realized incrementally:

— 2023–2024 (Stage 1) — construction of a container and multi-purpose yards for heavy load cargo, setting the transport and logistic center Yuzhny Port in operation;

— after 2025 (Stage 2 and 3) — construction of a warehouse complex (an indoor warehouse for packaged goods and a cargo handling zone on the Moskvich factory grounds).

Trains will not disrupt the schedule of Moscow Central Diameter (MCD) and suburban trains while going to the Moscow – Yuzhny Port cargo station. The Moskvich plant will be the main source of the TLC’s operations for the first few years. At full capacity, the center will handle up to 5.6 million tons of cargo annually while creating about 1,500 jobs.

The target production output for Moskvich in 2022-2024 is as follows:

— 600 cars in 2022, including 400 with internal combustion engines and 200 electric powered;

— 50,000 cars in 2023, 10,000 of them - electric powered;

— 100,000 cars in 2024, including 20,000 with electric motors. Half of that number will be DKD, the other half – CKD.

Moskvich is already setting up its own dealership network that will sell and service the cars. Dealership applications were collected in October. 340 applications came from 23 Russian cities. After the plant reviews them, they will select 40 partners to open the first dealerships. They expect the sales to concentrate mainly in Central Russia for the first few years.

For example, 134 charger stations have been installed in the city under the Moscow Energy program. Registered users of the Moscow Transport app can charge their electric cars there for free. Shopping centers and other road traffic focus points are quickly setting up their own charger stations. 150-200 new stations are going to appear every year in Moscow alone.

Public transport in the Moscow regions, such as cab and car sharing companies, is also going to be a large market for Moskvich cars (40-50,000 cars per year).

Revival of Moskvich will make Moscow a national center for electric-powered transport design and production. Development of Moscow electric car cluster will create about 40,000 jobs at the flagship company and component suppliers in Moscow and other Russian regions.

Workforce

Moscow helped the plant to keep its workforce. There are 2,045 people working at Moskvich today. Their average age is 38 years, with 8 years average work experience at the plant. 46 per cent of them have been working there for over 10 years.

Mr. Kogotin emphasized that establishing a new workforce is always one of the most challenging things for any new project. “Here we have a highly skilled workforce brought up working with Renault products.  There’s no need to train them.  They know all the standards and work very hard. I’m grateful to them for not leaving.  There’s a huge market out there now. They’re fans of their work; they stayed and waited for those six months. And now they are working again,” said KAMAZ CEO.

The majority of jobs the company has now are machinery operators (58 per cent of all staff). Engineers make up 8 per cent. The rest (34 per cent) are professionals, including senior specialists in various areas (22 per cent): logistics, quality analysts, sales, finance, legal, HR professionals and managers (12 per cent). 22 per cent of the total company staff are women. There are 41 per cent of women in management positions while only 10 percent are equipment operators. Moscow Automotive Plant has historically had a successful youth policy, partnering with education institutions (15 university and colleges).