Fiat’s plans to build up to 500,000 Chryslers and Jeeps in Russia collapsed last week. Chrysler’s cross-town rival Ford may have had something to do with that. On Friday, Ford and Russia’s Sollers “signed a Memorandum of Understanding under which the parties intend to launch a new 50:50-owned joint venture called Ford Sollers for the production and distribution of Ford vehicles in Russia,” says a Sollers communiqué. Sollers also had been in talks with Fiat, which ended fruitless. The end of the Fiat talks were announced on the same day the deal with Ford was revealed.
The joint venture will include Ford and Sollers local production facilities in Vsevolozhsk (St. Petersburg region) and in the Republic of Tatarstan, where a range of Ford passenger cars and light commercial vehicles will be produced.
Ford has been in Russia since 2002, but needs a boost. GM “sold nearly three times as many cars in the country last month,” says the Wall Street Journal.
Sollers is the second-largest producer of passenger and light-commercial vehicles in Russia, with sales of 98,000 vehicles in 2010.
I would ask; “So does Russia think there’s only room for one?” But knowing how much they’ve been struggling as a country since the 90s I think they’re likely right in thinking there’s only room for one.
BTW Ford should have sent that model over here as part of the Focus Rally Across America or whatever the heck they’re calling their latest marketing stunt.
Sanity and common sense are not the best guide when you try to fathom Rusky realities and dealings. With players of such calibre, I’d suspect. it is more of a desire to “share the wealth” with Sollers or whoever represents the Russian side.
And trust me, despite a recession, Russian auto market will gulp anything. And I mean – anything: Chinese no-names, Tata, whatever is there. The supply of foreign makes is smallish, private import is almost impossible due to HUGE customs levvies (how ’bout $35 Grand for a Dodge Ram/F-150?) and demand is huge.
There is a bunch of smaller operations scattered across the country. For example, they build Korean SUVs in Taganrog. Also, some kind of Renault econobox is assembled in Kaluga. But the article deals with what’s going at the top level, truly massive production numbers.
The Russian car industry is hot!
Ah yes, the lovely Nadia Forde, endorsing Fords:
http://www.joe.ie/women/joes-lovely-ladies-2/joes-national-treasures-nadia-forde-008310-1
Spot the car? What car!?
Drive a Commie for Mommy?
My how times change
Nyet tovarich?
From what I see, the US supply of home-grown commies is about 1000 to 1 compared to nowadays Russia.
Great news for Ford. There’s something so much more inspiring about an American company bolstering its bottom line through selling cars to a former adversary… than GM’s desperate reliance on sales to a future one in order to survive.
Bertel…You write a lot of stuff,that I might not agree with.
That being said. Your photo judgement knows no peer.
Hope they are better than the Lada 06 I drove for the five years I lived in Moscow. A one year old Lada was worth as much as a new one since the owner had a year to fix all the problems when it left the factory. Russian girls, on the other hand, were well worth it.
At least that Lada 2106 can be fixed with simplest tools and does not require a radio or a battery to be coded to it :-)
OMG! TAZ (taz = “tinny wash-basin” for ya English speakers, tons of intended pun) 2106?! Why would you expose yourself to such a sensory cruelty?
Lada2106 is a FIAT no wonder they went with FORD once bitten twice shy
We don’t need Ford, we just need more wholesome All-American girls here in Moscow. I likes them more than the local variety.
She looks nothing like the bride UPS delivered last week. Drat that Photoshop.
In Russia car drives you!