Volkswagen cars are officially on sale in Russia again, but the company pretends not to know about it
The Russian subsidiary of the Chinese company FAW is responsible for the supply of the Jetta model
Volkswagen cars are once again officially on sale in Russia, but the company pretends to have nothing to do with it.
Source. This was reported by the German Zeit, cited by The Insider.
In early July, the Jetta, a sub-brand of Volkswagen and FAW cars that was created and launched in China in 2019, officially entered the Russian market.
In early March 2022, Volkswagen Group announced that it would stop supplying cars to Russia and halt production at its Kaluga plant and its Nizhny Novgorod site. In the summer, Volkswagen Group Rus closed its office in Nizhny Novgorod. After that, Jetta cars were supplied to Russia through parallel imports (smuggling).
Jetta has reportedly launched an official website, Jetta Motors Russia, registered to FAW Osteuropa GmbH (FAW-Eastern Europe LLC), the Russian subsidiary of China FAW Group Import & Export Co, the same FAW group that assembles cars together with Volkswagen in China.
It is FAW Osteuropa GmbH that is responsible for the supply of cars to Russia, a company representative said in response to a request from German journalists.
FAW Osteuropa GmbH is the official importer of the Jetta in Russia.
That is, in fact, the cars were brought to the Russian market by Volkswagen's Chinese partner (VW Group). But "it does not seem very plausible that such a move could have happened without Volkswagen's knowledge," Zeit writes.
FAW's Russian website reports that in the future the company plans to expand the range of models supplied to the Russian market, which will include, for example, the Junpai D60 (engine from Japanese Toyota) and others.
VW's German subsidiary told reporters that it knew nothing about business in Russia. Neither VW Group China nor its joint ventures export cars to Russia. Any reports or statements to the contrary have no basis in fact and are simply wrong."
In April of this year, it was also reported that the French Citroen C5 Aircross had started mass production, with assembly starting at the Kaluga plant. Components for the car's assembly are supplied by the Chinese company Dongfeng Motor Group, Peugeot Citroen's partner in China and a shareholder in Stellanti, Reuters reported. The European company demanded that its Chinese partner stop supplying parts to Russia.
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