OREANDA-NEWS  Thousands of cars have accumulated in the parking lots of the former Volkswagen plant in the Kaluga region. Autonews found foreign cars at a company that stopped working in Russia.

On the territory of the enterprise, which is promised to be restarted in the first half of 2024, there are several thousand cars of Chinese, German and Japanese brands hidden by snow. Among them there are Volkswagen Tyron sold in China, Audi Q6 developed for the PRC market, Toyota RAV4 crossovers, Avatr 11 electric cars and GAC M8 minivans, as well as Chery Tiggo crossovers.

The Volkswagen plant in the Kaluga Region is one of the largest sites for the assembly of foreign cars in Russia, capable of producing 225 cars per year. The company has a welding and assembly line, a stamping shop and a site for the production of gasoline engines for Volkswagen Polo and Skoda Rapid.


Earlier, Denis Manturov, head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, said that Art Finance, which now owns an enterprise in Kaluga, had found an industrial foreign partner. The work of the plant, which now belongs to the Art Finance company, should be resumed in the first half of 2024, he added.

By the end of 2023, 30 percent of employees had left the former Volkswagen plant. Of the 3.7 thousand factory workers, 1.3 thousand were left without work. The workers claim that they were forced to leave the company by the new owner, who canceled the delivery of workers by transport. The staff is worried that the new management is destroying technologies and equipment "inherited" from Volkswagen.