He is not “Moskvich” for you – Newspaper Kommersant No. 221 (7422) dated 11/29/2022

“After so many years? Is always!” – With this quote from Harry Potter, the Ministry of Industry and Trade accompanied the news about the resumption of the work of the Moskvich automobile plant. Apparently, J.K. Rowling’s books are not considered unfriendly after Vladimir Putin mentioned her in the context of one of the victims of the “cancellation culture”. The Moskvich itself is completely “friendly”, as its representatives say, with “eastern” roots.

If you do not follow the auto news, then the car, called “Moskvich 3” and the first to stand on the assembly line of the automobile plant, may seem like a novelty. However, it is no longer a secret for anyone that this is a Chinese JAC JS4: the brand even brought such a model to the Russian Federation. There are almost no differences: the Moskvich 3 model received only its own nameplate – the same oval shape as the JAC.

On the other hand, it was strange to expect more in conditions when foreign investors do not want to officially enter the Russian auto industry. Although analysts in conversations with me also wondered if the production of a small batch using SKD could be called a full-scale restart of the plant. Indeed, Moskvich can change the assembled model at any time: the plant’s presentation directly states that the main assembly line will start working only in 2023.

For years, industrial officials in the auto industry considered SKD a sham in terms of localization. But now, after the departure or suspension of the activities of most local players, it has become the subject of solemn official mailings.

What remains unclear is how Moskvich is going to step over from this stage to the promised machine of “own development”. The company, unlike the announced plans of Sollers or Motorinvest, does not talk about a gradual change in the original Chinese platform to Russian conditions, and then intends to produce its own electric car. Perhaps these are just statements, but the essence will be the integration of domestic solutions into the Chinese platform – if we’re lucky, we’ll find out in 2025.

From more mundane questions to the first model: where did the triple in the name come from (unless, of course, it was conceived as the letter Z). Autopool journalists and I tried to find an explanation before the start of production, and then I suggested that this is a rather strange variation on the BMW series, although it is not clear where the rest are. KamAZ, which is officially represented by Moskvich’s technology partner, put forward the following explanation: on the one hand, this is a “class characteristic” – like BMW or Mazda, but also a generation. So far, the name looks like an attempt to build continuity between the Soviet Moskvich, the times of Renault and the current Chinese content with a localized nameplate.