The boards of AvtoVAZ and Renault, which has a 25% stake in the Russian carmaker, meet tomorrow (16 July, 2010) in Togliatti to discuss business development plans and further investment.
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The meeting takes place against a background of improving sales and profitability for Russia’s largest carmaker which sells cars under the Lada brand and earlier this week reported a net profit of RUB1bn (US$32.7m) in April-June, reversing a net loss of RUB38.5bn in the previous quarter. Lada sales surged 77% in June from a year ago and are up 23% for the six months to the end of June.
The improved performance has been helped by Russia’s scrappage scheme for old cars and prompted prime minister Vladimir Putin at a meeting earlier this week to urge AvtoVAZ president Igor Komarov to press ahead with urgently-needed modernisation programmes following state support which helped the company through the financial crisis.
According to official transcripts of the meeting, a seemingly impatient Putin told Komarov: “It would be sad to see the success of the state car scrappage scheme pushing modernisation of the enterprise to the background.”
“Can you tell me in concise, clear language what will you do for these plans to be put into action?” Putin said.
Komarov told him that the carmaker has completed the most difficult stage of its anti-crisis programme and is now going to implement the next stage, which involves a change of technological processes and the creation of new models the first of which is a low-cost car based on the Kalina being developed with the help of Renault and due late next year.
This will be followed by five models based on Renault’s low-cost Logan platform, production of which is due to start from March 2012.
“I believe that for the first time we have achieved equality in relationship, access to innovation, platforms created by the Renault-Nissan alliance,” said Komarov.
At tomorrow’s meeting “we will discuss practical steps towards realisation of our plans in different directions which will concern suppliers, research, launch of new models, new projects, investment volumes and development priorities,” Komarov told Putin.
