VW, Ford Open Engine Plants in Russia Amid Car Market Plunge
- Volkswagen opens $279 million factory in Kaluga on Friday
- Russian car market may decline to a six-year low in 2015
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Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co. are sticking with long-planned investments in Russian engine factories even as car sales there head toward a six-year low.
Volkswagen opened a 250 million-euro ($279 million) plant on Friday, with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attending the inaugural ceremony. The factory near Kaluga, an industrial city southwest of Moscow where Volkswagen already produces vehicles, will have capacity to make 150,000 engines a year for Russian-made VW-brand and Skoda cars, helping reduce prices, Marcus Osegowitsch, head of the carmaker’s Russian unit, said at the event.