Volkswagen has become the first foreign automaker to have its own engine production facility in Russia, as the German company inaugurated a new factory in Kaluga.
Following three years of construction, the VW Group inaugurated the new engine plant at Kaluga in the presence of the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Thomas Schmall, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand responsible for Components, and the Governor of Kaluga Region Anatoly Artamonov.
The plant will produce the newly developed 110PS 1.6-liter EA211 gasoline engine, which will be used for the VW Polo and the Skoda Rapid produced in Kaluga, as well as for the VW Jetta and the Skoda Octavia and Yeti, built jointly with GAZ in Nizhny Novgorod.
VW’s new engine plant occupies an area of 32,000 square meters and is projected to have an annual production capacity of about 150,000 units – up to 600 1.6-liter gasoline engines will be produced each day. The total investment in the plant has been about €250 million ($279 million), with 400 jobs being created in the region.
“The development of Volkswagen in Kaluga – starting with the vehicle plant and continuing with the engine plant – symbolizes the strength of this region. We intend to continue this development in future because we believe in the considerable potential offered by the Russian automobile industry,” said Thomas Schmall, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand responsible for Components.
Thanks to the new plant, the VW Group will be fulfilling its obligations under an agreement reached with the Russian government at the end of May 2011 which determined that, as of 2016, at least 30 percent of vehicles produced in Russia had to be equipped with engines manufactured locally.
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