13640.jpg

OREANDA-NEWS. Engine-plant Volkswagen in the industrial park "Grabtsevo" near Kaluga will be opened on September 8th. The first production engine will be the 16-valve petrol unit volume of 1.6 liters. The volume of investment in the company is estimated at 250 million Euros.

According to "Rossiyskaya Gazeta", the start of construction of the plant was announced in December of 2012 and in February 2015 the first pre-series production was launched. Then it became known that the power line will be 150 000 engines per year, and they will installed in the Kaluga automotive cluster in the assembled models Volkswagen and Skoda. Director of Public Relations "Volkswagen Group Rus" Natalia Kostyukovich commented that "the production of engines will improve significantly the localization of production and positive impact on the price of cars."

Because of the crisis in the Russian market, which is experienced by all manufacturers, Volkswagen was forced several times to suspend the production of cars in Kaluga due to a fall in sales volumes by 44%, and even cut some staff. But it didn’t decline the challenge to increase the presence in our country.

However, it could hardly refuse - foreign motor companies, by getting a solid state support in Russia, are forced to comply the government decree N 166 of 2005 on industrial assembly of foreign cars. By the end of 2017 it is necessary to bring the level of localization of production (ie the use of local raw materials and automotive components) up to 60%. This figure at Volkswagen according to Mr.Kostyukovich is still 45%.