Renault-Avtoframos JV Raising Capacity at Moscow Plant

VIENNA – Renault plans to increase capacity at its Avtoframos joint-venture plant in Moscow.

Avtoframos produces about 30 vehicles an hour in three shifts. The JV is investing €5 million ($6.3 million) to raise hourly output to 33.

“We will have 33 cars per hour in September, that is certain,” Bruno Ancelin, Renault senior vice president-Eurasia Region and managing director-Russia, tells WardsAuto.

 “If it is possible, we will continue to push our way up to 35 vehicles per hour, but we are not sure that we will reach 35,” he says. “We have identified two or three machines, especially in the body shop, that are the bottleneck today. So we could invest a small amount of money to push the capacity up to 35 units per hour.”

Renault’s main products manufactured in Moscow arethe Logan sedan, Sandero hatchback and the Duster entry-level CUV. The plant also assembles other models. Maximum capacity is about 660 vehicles a day.

Renault launched Russian Duster sales in early March and now seeks to reduce the long waiting times stemming from its popularity among Russian customers. Waiting times for the Logan and Sandero are shorter.

“We will suffer for the three cars because we know that the waiting time is long today,” Ancelin says. “We are ready to increase the waiting time a bit for the Logan and the Sandero and create a kind of balance between the waiting times for the three cars.

“I can say that 50% of the capacity of the Moscow plant will be reserved for the Duster in the second half of this year. That means more than 300 (Dusters) per day.”

Strong demand in Russia has prompted Renault to reduce exports of its Russian-made cars to some other Commonwealth of Independent States countries.

Renault’s Ukrainian import subsidiary, which used to receive the Logan from Russia, switched to the Logan sourcing from the Automobile Dacia plant in Romania earlier this year. Ukrainian dealers are getting the Sandero both from Russia (models with gasoline engines) and from Romania (diesel and gas engines), while the Duster is sourced from Romania only.

Renault’s plant capacity in Russia will improve next year when its partner, Lada maker AvtoVAZ, launch production of Renault-badged cars at its factory in Togliatti.