OREANDA-NEWS. Company Volkswagen plans to start the export automobile engines to Europe, which will be produced at the new plant in Kaluga from autumn of this year. The director of the region Russia - CIS, Skoda Auto, Miroslav Kroupa said.

"This year it will be opened in Kaluga the plant of engines - in August and November, there is a serious opening ceremony”, - said Mr.Kroupa. – “We intend to export engines to Europe. The only question is in the power plant. At first we thought that the power will be loaded by the production of engines for Russia, but now the situation has changed”.

Recall that in December of 2012 the company Volkswagen Group Rus began the construction in Kaluga of engine plant, which will produce petrol engines of 1.6 liters. The new plant was built on an area of 30 thousand square meters in the vicinity of the carmaker Volkswagen in Kaluga. Annual capacity is 150,000 engines per year, which will be equipped with engines of local production of at least 30% of produced cars by concern in Russia. Power units will be supplied to the models Volkswagen and Skoda, which are produced at the plant in Kaluga and the facilities of "GAZ Group" in Nizhny Novgorod. Investment in the project is about 250 million Euros.

As noted Mr.Kroupa, the localization of engines will allow the company to increase the level of localization of production from 47% at the end of 2014 to 50% by the end of 2015. "In particular, it will be done by bumpers, seats, carpets, tires, wheels, windows. But to find a manufacturer of electronics in Russia is very difficult: for example, it refers to the airbag, management systems. It is very difficult to find suppliers. Now Bosch builds in Togliatti the plant to produce ABS, but it is only the first step”, - he added.