Stellantis had announced that it would stop investment plans in Russia. The company's CEO says he will have to permanently close the commercial vehicle plant in the Moscow area, especially since suppliers don't have enough components.
Russia's Stellantis Kaluga plant has an annual capacity of 125,000 cars but has produced far below that number. The factory has been operating since 2017, when it began production within the Peugeot-Citroen PSA Group, which later merged with Fiat - Chrysler Automobiles to form the Stellantis Group.
Volkswagen and Volvo Trucks also have plants in Kaluga, and Stellantis produced three models of light commercial vehicles: Peugeot Expert, Opel Vivaro, and Citroen Jumpy. At the end of January, Stellantis announced that production from Kaluga would also go to Western Europe, and plans were underway to begin production of another commercial model this year: the Fiat Scudo.
Carlos Tavares, the group's CEO, says that the plant will have to be closed, and production will be moved to France, especially since the supply chain is no longer operational due to sanctions.
The car group has 1% of the Russian market, and the local profit is somewhere around 20-30 million US dollars/year, so the withdrawal will not be a tragedy as, for example, at Renault.
Stellantis N.V. is based in Amsterdam, formed in January 2021, and includes 14 brands, from Fiat and Alfa Romeo to Opel, Peugeot, and Maserati. It is the world's fourth-largest car group, with nearly $ 100 billion in annual sales.
