Spiegel: Austrian businessman Wolf proposed a project to produce cars in Russia

The former chairman of the board of directors of the GAZ Group, Austrian Siegfried Wolf, proposed to the Russian authorities a project for the production of cars in Russia for 60 billion rubles. About it reported German newspaper Der Spiegel.

The Austrian entrepreneur’s plan involves the production of about 270,000 cars a year at the GAZ plant in Nizhny Novgorod and at the Volkswagen plant in Kaluga, the newspaper writes.

Wolf also suggested resuming the production of some models of the Skoda brand with design “characteristic features” of the Pobeda and Volga cars. According to the businessman, his project will create 12,000 jobs. According to Der Spiegel, Wolf sent a letter with such proposals to Russian President Vladimir Putin in January.

The Volkswagen plant in Kaluga stopped car production in March 2022, after the start of the military operation in Ukraine and against the backdrop of the withdrawal of foreign automakers in connection with this. In July of the same year, the German company also decided to curtail contract assembly in Nizhny Novgorod.

March 1, sources close to the deal with Volkswagen told Vedomosti that the car dealer holding “Avilon” And AFK Sistema considered as applicants for the automaker’s plant in Kaluga. April 5 Kommersant, citing sources informedthat the government commission on foreign investment is ready to consider the sale of Volkswagen’s Russian assets in the near future, the buyer can still become “Avilon“.