Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn will receive a feasibility study next month on the potential to cooperate with Russia’s largest car maker AvtoVAZ, Renault spokesman Andrew Boyle told Automotive News Europe.
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Renault is seeking more production capacity in Russia, where its locally made low-cost Logan is a sales success.
The French car maker said in June that it would increase annual production capacity at its Avtoframos factory in Moscow to 80,000 units from 60,000 starting in 2007. The plant makes the Logan from knockdown kits supplied from Renault’s Dacia subsidiary in Romania.
Co-operation between Renault and AvtoZAZ, which builds Lada cars, likely will not involve Renault taking shares in the Russian car maker.
AvtoVAZ spokesman Ivan Skrylnik told ANE that selling a stake in AvtoVAZ to a foreign company was out of the question. “Foreign makers are not interested in promoting Lada cars here,” Skrylnik said. “They might start dictating their terms.”
AvtoVAZ plans to develop and manufacture a dozen new models in the next few years. Despite its need for investment and Western expertise, AvtoVAZ is determined to remain a Russian-owned national champion.
