LAMENT FOR LADA
Renault has finally quit Russia, and with it go Lada’s aspirations to be truly modern
Renault’s belated withdrawl from Russia could mean curtains for Lada’s place in the modern motoring world.
Western carmakers began exiting Russia as soon as the country invaded Ukraine in February. But Renault was the last to leave — the French maker was even namechecked by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March, with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba calling for a global boycott.
The problem for Renault was its controlling stake in Russian company AvtoVAZ, parent to Lada — a brand that claims more than 20 per cent of the Russian car market, with a large range of models. Lada’s Vesta sedan/ wagon and Granta small-car were first and second in the Russian sales charts for 2021.
Renault finally made the decision to exit Russia in May, its 68 per cent interest in AvtoVAZ going to NAMI, a Russian government-owned research centre.
“Today, we have taken a difficult but necessary decision; and we are making a responsible choice towards our 45,000 employees in Russia, while preserving the Group’s performance and our ability to return to the country in the future, in a different context,” said Renault CEO Luca de Meo.
The deal gives Renault the option to buy back its stake at some point in the next six years, although as de Meo said — that will be under a very different business model.
Renault has brought Lada into a much more modern era of quality and safety, drawing on its global Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance resources.
But AvtoVAZ is now closing ranks and has committed to redesigning current models to be less reliant on imported parts. The emphasis will be on simplicity . . . like Ladas used to be. Russia might also soon see the return of Moskvich. While Renault sold its AvtoVAZ stake to the state, its Moscow factory has been bought by the city, which plans to reboot the Soviet-era Moskvich brand, dormant since 1991.