Stellantis, which owns the brands Peugeot, Citroën and Opel, has officially announced it is suspending the work of its plant in Russia, Kallanish notes.

“Given the rapid daily increase in cross sanctions and logistical difficulties, Stellantis has suspended its manufacturing operations in Kaluga to ensure full compliance with all cross sanctions and to protect its employees,” the company says. “Stellantis condemns violence and supports all actions capable of restoring peace.”

Earlier, in the beginning of April, the head of the enterprise Carlos Tavares said it intends to suspend the work of its plant in Kaluga due to the lack of components.

On March, Stellantis announced that it had also stopped importing all its brands to Russia. 

Last month, exports from Russia to Europe of Kaluga-assembled Peugeot Expert vans began and Stellantis had high hopes for the export direction, but this was before the Russian invasion in Ukraine and new sanctions against Moscow. Now, orders for these cars will be carried out by enterprises in France and the UK.

The vast majority of Russian car factories are idled due to the rupture of supply chains due to the situation around Ukraine, according to Russian analytical agency Autostat (see Kallanish passim).

At present, the production of cars is carried out at only four enterprises - the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant (UAZ), Haveil Motor Rus, Mazda Sollers and Avtotor.

UAZ announced a corporate holiday for six working days in the first half of May. As a result, the conveyor of the enterprise will be stopped for two weeks.

However, from 24 April, AVTOVAZ should resume production, which had previously postponed a two-week corporate holiday from summer to April. 

According to Russian automotive analysts, the market’s stock of cars will last between two and five months.