Rebirth of Volga Automobile Brand in Russia

TapTechNews May 25th news, Volga is an automobile brand under the Gorky Automobile Plant. It was once considered a symbol and pride of the former Soviet industry and was also widely used in official vehicles in socialist countries, and the last production of this brand was in 2010.

At the industrial exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia this week, the Volga automobile brand announced its rebirth and launched three new models, but these three cars are actually all based on Changan Automobile.

The three new cars are the sedan C40 and the SUV models K30 and K40, all using the same 1.5-liter Changan engine JL473ZQ7, with an output power of 188 horsepower (138 kilowatts) and a torque of 300 Newton-meters. The transmission is unknown, but the C40 may be equipped with a 7-speed automatic transmission.

It is reported that the C40 is positioned as a midsize sedan, based on the second-generation Changan Ruicheng PLUS (in 2023), with dimensions of 4800×1820×1480mm and a wheelbase of 2770mm. It is planned to be launched in Russia in 2025.

The K30 is positioned as a compact SUV, based on ChanganAuchan X5 (in 2020), with length, width and height of 4490×1860×1580mm and a wheelbase of 2710mm.

The K40 is a midsize SUV model based on Changan UNI-Z (in 2022), with dimensions of 4699×1890×1660 and a wheelbase of 2795mm.

It is worth noting that when Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and other government ministers inspected at the exhibition, they found that many parts of this model are made in China, while the steering wheel seems to be made in Russia. In this regard, he hopes that the manufacturer can further increase the domestic content in Russia.

Mishustin said, I always hope to see that Russia can produce and design these parts by itself, and it can be said that it is not very difficult to produce these things actually, and he also called for localization to be first focused on easily producible parts.

TASS said that the Volga automobile production project will have a total investment of more than 60 billion rubles (TapTechNews note: currently about 4.854 billion yuan), including related investments in R&D, the construction of an automobile production base, and the construction of a Russian parts base. Automobile expert Maxim Kadakov predicted that the starting price of the new Volga C40 is 2.5 million rubles (currently about 202,000 yuan), and the prices of K30 and K40 are 2.5-3 million rubles (currently about 202,000-243,000 yuan) and 3-3.5 million rubles (currently about 243,000-283,000 yuan) respectively.

It is reported that Volga automobiles will be produced in the Nizhny Novgorod Automobile Factory and is expected to start mass production this year and will be switched to a full-cycle production mode from 2025.

We plan to produce most of the key parts domestically. Currently, engineers in Nizhny Novgorod are studying solutions to achieve deep localization of the platform and main components and assemblies. The Nizhny Novgorod Automobile Factory has everything to achieve this goal - including experience, traditions, production capacity and the best engineering colleges in the country, said Alexander Podoplov, the head of the passenger car production company.