A board meeting on Wednesday at Russian car maker AvtoVAZ is is expected to view drafts for an expanded range of models and consider increased production targets submitted by a new management team.
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The Moscow Times said the meeting was the first since a pledge of about US$5bn in state funding for a sweeping overhaul of the business last month.
A proposed new model range would include a hatchback, minivan, station wagon and SUV-based crossover on top of the current Niva sport-utility model.
AvtoVAZ confirmed to the paper it was talking with a number of overseas design studios, including Pininfarina, Bertone and ItalDesign.
The Moscow Times said AvtoVAZ has been at the centre of much speculation in recent months, after two senior officials from state arms dealer Rosoboronexport were appointed to the company’s board in late December. The planned revamp was unveiled just weeks later.
Late Tuesday, the paper noted, the news agency Interfax reported, citing an unidentified source, that the car maker could bid for as much as half of the money to be allocated this year by the state investment fund. The fund, which is to be used for infrastructure projects, has some $2.5 billion to distribute in 2006.
AvtoVAZ plans future annual production targets of 150,000 hatchbacks, 90,000 minivans, 60,000 station wagons and 40,000 SUV-based crossovers, according to a recent report, the paper said.
It added that Vedomosti this week cited an unidentified source saying that annual production of AvtoVAZ’s most recent model, the Kalina, would be ramped up to 300,000 in 2009, from a previously announced 220,000.
AvtoVAZ spokesman Vladimir Yakushenko told the Moscow Times that future output for the Kalina would be “slightly less” than in the Vedomosti report.
