Lada instead of Mercedes: Russians should drive domestic cars again
Created: 07/09/2022, 08:06
By: Marcus Efler
Western car brands were considered status symbols in Russia.
But because of the sanctions, the drivers of the war nation have to get used to old domestic brands again.
Moscow (Russia) - Gold-black paintwork on the outside, beige leather on the inside, V12 engine under the hood: The Mercedes-Maybach S 680 by Virgil Abloh is made for rich Russian drivers who like it a bit more visually striking.
But nothing will come of it now.
With the economic boycott in response to the Ukraine invasion, the German automakers, who sold many of their top models to the oligarchs, stopped exporting to Russia as well as local production.
And the more ordinary cars from VW and Co, which were valued by the local middle class, are no longer available - the Russian car market has completely collapsed.
The Lada Niva even enjoys cult status in Germany.
(Iconic image) © Jason Langley/Imago
Mercedes goodbye: Russians should drive Lada again
The way out, as the Kremlin imagines it: Old car brands in the huge empire are to be reactivated or significantly strengthened.
Industry Minister Denis Manturov announced plans "to revive Volga or Pobeda - or even both".
The former brand Moskwitsch (nicknamed “Rustquietsch” by GDR citizens), which was once exported to fellow socialist countries at the time, is said to be on the verge of a new beginning.
In Soviet times, the rugged Volga models were considered the vehicles of choice for second-line officials who weren't entitled to the limousines of ZIL, the Soviet answer to Mercedes.
Pobeda, on the other hand, stands for cars that copied western achievements such as the self-supporting body of the 1950s.
Mercedes goodbye: Lada slips technically again
Lada, a synonym for Russian cars in Germany in particular, is also said to play an important role again.
Renault had recently held shares in the car plant in Tolyatti, a quasi-Russian Wolfsburg.
Technically, too, the French played a major role in the fact that cars like the Lada Vesta were technically very usable cars that German budget customers also valued.
How the local car company Avtovaz intends to continue after Renault's withdrawal is not yet known.
Industry experts also certify that the other reactivated brands have rather dubious prospects of success.
"We are facing primitivism and will be thrown back a decade compared to the rest of the world," the Bloomberg news agency quoted an auto expert from Moscow's Higher School of Economics as saying.
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It will take at least five years before the local brands can carry out the Kremlin's orders and build series cars with independent production, estimates the Munich consulting company Berylls, according to the "Spiegel".
Because "the auto industry was dependent on foreign components", according to the Moscow economics expert according to Bloomberg: "There were practically no factories that did not work on foreign platforms".