AvtoVAZ may return to Uzbekistan market

Russian automaker AvtoVAZ is working on a strategy for returning to the Uzbekistan market this year. The company’s export director, Ilya Savinov, spoke about this in an interview with Spot on April 22 at the industrial exhibition “INNOPROM. Central Asia,” Azernews reports, citing Kun.uz News Agency.

“Now we are working on a strategy for entering the Uzbekistan market – returning to Uzbekistan. Today, negotiations are underway with partners who will represent the Lada brand – these are distributors and importers. We are identifying partners with whom we will continue our cooperation. Now, during the negotiations, unfortunately, we are not yet ready to disclose the details,” he shared.

According to Ilya Savinov, the Russian company plans to localize car production and is negotiating on this topic with local partners, whom the AvtoVAZ representative refused to name.

The automaker’s immediate plans include introducing the Lada Niva Legend, Granta, Vesta SW Cross and Largus car models to the local market.

In addition, the export director of AvtoVAZ positively assessed the restrictions on the import of cars into the republic introduced on April 1.

“This is a good solution that allows us to control and regulate the automobile market, support local automakers, as they create jobs and generate additional tax revenues, and, of course, it is important to control the flow of imports. I personally assess the decision as absolutely correct,” Ilya Savinov summed up.

He also emphasized that having the status of an official distributor or importer is an important condition for importing cars into any market.

Large-scale assembly (SKD) of Lada in Uzbekistan started in October 2021. At the ADM Jizzakh plant of the Roodell company, three models were produced for the local market – Vesta, Largus, XRay.

In June 2022, it was reported that Roodell was preparing to launch the full production cycle of Lada. On the territory of the plant, construction of new premises for workshops was underway, where it was planned to produce new models.

In April last year, AvtoVAZ President Maxim Sokolov spoke about plans to launch the production of a new Lada Vesta model in Uzbekistan. The concern planned to produce up to 30 thousand cars annually at the Jizzakh site.

In September of the same year, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury included AvtoVAZ on the sanctions list (SDN list).