According to a media report, Porsche supervisory board member Siegfried Wolf approached the Russian president in January that he wanted to rebuild the Russian auto industry. The Russian Volga brand should be revived and closed VW plants should be used. VW is irritated.
DAccording to a media report, Austrian entrepreneur and Porsche supervisory board member Siegfried Wolf offered Russian President Vladimir Putin help for the reconstruction of the Russian auto industry in January. In a letter to the Kremlin boss, Wolf suggested reviving “the legendary Russian Volga brand”, he reported „Spiegel“ on Friday. For the implementation, Wolf brought the shut down Volkswagen factories in Russia into play.
The Austrian wrote to Putin that cars of the VW brand Skoda could be produced again in Russia from the second half of 2023. However, the vehicles were to be ” fundamentally redesigned externally” in order to bring out “the characteristic features” of the legendary Volga and Pobeda models. This will “meet the needs of Russian consumers for high-quality and reliable vehicles” and create more than 12,000 jobs.
Wolf also offered to take on the project management himself as the owner of the Russian company PromAvtoKonsalt. The industrial partner would be the Russian carmaker GAZ, which is affected by Western sanctions. There is already a “fundamental agreement with Volkswagen’s top management,” he added.
The Wolfsburg group disagreed. The board has “no knowledge” of Wolf’s letter “and its irritating content,” said the group on request. Although PromAvtoKonsalt was one of the prospective buyers for VW systems in Russia, no commitments were made to individual interested parties before the sale process was completed. “It is therefore not comprehensible for us how third parties could be referred to it.”
As the magazine further reported, Wolf’s company was not awarded the contract by VW. The automotive supplier Schaeffler from Herzogenaurach has therefore sold its Russian business to PromAvtoKonsalt.