AVTOVAZ may reduce the lineup after the departure of Renault

The French automaker Renault intends to transfer its 68% stake in the capital of AVTOVAZ to FSUE NAMI. The price of a transaction with a buyback option within 5-6 years will be 1 ruble, said the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov. According to him, the new leadership of AVTOVAZ will be appointed by NAMI together with Rostec.

The sale of Renault's stake in AVTOVAZ to Chinese and Korean companies was not discussed, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation added. Speaking about what will happen to the production processes at AVTOVAZ, Mr. Manturov said: "We proceed from the fact that the main platforms will remain if Renault eventually retains its current position, but we will change logistics and component suppliers, first of all to Russian".

Meanwhile, the Renaulution strategy implied the transition of new LADA models to the platforms of the alliance, and now the prospects for updating the AVTOVAZ model range are in doubt. "Not only the upcoming novelties of the plant - LADA C-SUV (analogous to Dacia Bigster), Vesta of the new generation and others, but also a number of existing models, for example, Largus and even XRAY, for the production of which the import substitution is very difficult to implement, turned out to be at risk," Denis Migal, CEO of the Fresh Auto dealership network, informed Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Today, Renault Group is trying all the possibilities of business restructuring in Russia, which is now impossible due to the French sanctions against our country.

At the same time, the expert expects that the French concern will continue to cooperate with the Russian brand in a limited way. Recall that until the end of 2021, the Dutch Alliance Rostec Auto B.V., Rostec State Corporation (32%) and Renault Group (68%) were the owners of 100% of AVTOVAZ. At the end of 2021, the transfer of 100% of AVTOVAZ shares to Russian jurisdiction was completed, under the auspices of a new joint company, Lada Auto Holding, in which the shareholders' shares did not change.