Russia’s second-largest car and truck maker GAZ has dropped plans to stop production of its only car model, the long-running Volga, and plans to upgrade it “in the near future,” Maxim Avdeyev, CEO of OOO RusPromAvto, GAZ’ management company, said on Monday.
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“The decision to stop production of the Volga has been cancelled. The market needs the car and we’re going to produce it,” Avdeyev said, according to the Prime-Tass news agency.
OOO UK RusPromAvto, or RusPromAuto, is the management company of GAZ and a subsidiary of automobile holding OAO RusPromAvto, which holds 76% in GAZ.
GAZ expects its Volga output to total about 50,000 cars in 2006, flat on the year, Avdeyev said.
GAZ is considering equipping the Volga with a diesel engine in cooperation with DaimlerChrysler, a GAZ spokesman told Prime-Tass.
Volga cars have been produced since 1956. They were considered high-end cars and status symbols in the Soviet Union and were used by party officials, the news agency noted.
