Stellantis stops exporting cars to Russia because of the war in Ukraine. In doing so, Stellantis follows the example of Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, BMW and Volvo. Imports from Russia will also be discontinued.
The announcement of Stellantis was almost inevitable in light of the current sanctions against Russia and the decisions of other car manufacturers. With the – temporary or otherwise – disappearance of Stellantis from Russia, there is actually no European car manufacturer left that currently does business in the country. Last year, Stellantis sold 18,526 cars in Russia, according to Russian data collector Autostat. Peugeot is the group’s most popular brand in Russia with 8,727 cars sold. However, the numbers are not so great that Stellantis will lose sleep over it.
What the group should be more upset about is the announced export ban for cars by the Russian government. This means that cars produced in Russia can no longer be transported to the west to be sold there. At the beginning of this year, Stellantis planned to start producing vans for the Western European market at its factory in Kaluga, southwest of Moscow. That plan can now go into the paper shredder.
Stellantis initially did not want to shut down the factory, which employs 2,700 people and builds 11,000 vans annually. The argument behind it was that such a decision would hit workers harder than the Russian government. However, the factory was forced to close its doors due to a shortage of parts.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl