Moskvich: Russia needs cars, so they’re rebooting this Soviet-era brand

news7g05/18/2022

6 2 minutes read

Little known outside the former Soviet Union and its satellite countries, Moskvich was founded around 1930 and operated until 1991. Like many car brands from the countries of the Communist bloc, Moskvich Struggling with quality problems. The Muskovich 408 of the 1960s, which had a 50-horsepower engine, was even cited by Soviet officials for numerous defects, according to Lewis Siegelbaum’s book “Cars for Comrades.”

Despite these nagging problems, the Soviet government signed an agreement with French carmaker Renault to modernize the plant and increase production to 200,000 vehicles by 1975, according to the book. Production ended when the Soviet Union dissolved and Western automakers, such as Renault, moved in. Part of the old Moskvich plant was reopened in 2005 as a joint venture between Renault and the city of Moscow.

Renault also owns a controlling interest in Avtovaz, the parent company of the famous Russian car brand Lada. In its statement this week, Renault said that controlling interests were sold to the Russian government, while their control of the Moscow factory, where Renault cars were made, was sold to the city of Moscow. Renault left open the possibility of returning to the Russian market later.

“Foreign owners have decided to close the Renault Moscow plant. This is their right, however, we cannot allow our thousands of powerful workforces to find themselves unemployed,” said Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin. , written in one blog post, translated by CNN Business. “Therefore, I have decided to make the plant a property of the city and continue to produce passenger cars with the historic Moskvich brand.”

“In 2022, we are turning a new page in the history of Moskvich,” added Sobyanin.

The company will try to keep all current employees of the plant working there, the mayor wrote. The plant will also try to get most of the car’s parts from Russian companies. The plant will start with the production of conventional gasoline-powered cars but will at some point switch to making electric cars, according to Sobyanin’s blog post.

However, Sobyanin did not specify which models will be produced under the Moskvich name at the old Renault plant in the near future.

Moskvich has its roots in what are considered to be some of the first Soviet-designed cars from the 1920s and 30s. After World War II, the company started making cars under the Moskvich name, which means Moskvich. “Muscovite,” or hometown in Moscow.

Today, about 200,000 Moskvich vehicles are still registered in RussiaAccording to the analysis agency Autostat.

In general, cars were produced in the centrally controlled economies of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries were not known for their quality.

Some cars made in Communist countries, such as the East German Trabant, were popular in the West. The body of the Trabant is made of a material called Duroplast which is like plastic but is made from a mixture of wood pulp, cotton fibers and turpentine.

Even if still, can replace. Škoda, manufactured in communist-controlled Czechoslovakia, was taken over by the Volkswagen Group after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now headquartered in the Czech Republic, it has become one of the most popular and profitable brands of the VW Group.

Mark Thompson of CNN Business and Reuters contributed to this story.

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