Photo: Catalin Garmacea
It’s a known fact that for some reason Russia has a taste in Sport Activity Coupes, and the X4 seems to be no exception. The smaller brother of the X6 will apparently not only be sold but also built in the country from now on, via semi-knockdown kits.
This process will involve the help of BMW’s local partner, Avtotor that is currently building the 3-, 5- and 7 Series models as well as the X1, X3, X5 and X6 SUVs with the same procedure. Semi-knockdown kits are being shipped either from Germany or the US to Russia, and they are assembled on the spot to reduce costs as much as possible.
This way, the Germans are avoiding paying the so-called recycling fee that is applied to all cars imported into the country. They are not the only ones doing so, Mercedes-Benz going for the same strategy.
It might seem like good news at first, but the truth of the matter is, this is actually bad news as BMW was supposed to open a new plant in the Russian Federation shortly. With the current economic situation though, things don’t seem as certain as they used to so everyone will have to adapt.
For example, Volkswagen and Ford are cutting down on the production figures as we speak while General Motors ended sales of all Opel and mainstream Chevrolet cars. However, premium car makers have a different perspective.
That’s because wealthy individuals in Russia prefer to invest in hard goods during this stressful time and the sales of premium cars have dropped at a slower rate than the entire industry. For example, overall car sales have dropped by 38 percent in Russia this year while the sales of premium automobiles went down by around 20 percent according to Automotive News Europe.
This way, the Germans are avoiding paying the so-called recycling fee that is applied to all cars imported into the country. They are not the only ones doing so, Mercedes-Benz going for the same strategy.
It might seem like good news at first, but the truth of the matter is, this is actually bad news as BMW was supposed to open a new plant in the Russian Federation shortly. With the current economic situation though, things don’t seem as certain as they used to so everyone will have to adapt.
For example, Volkswagen and Ford are cutting down on the production figures as we speak while General Motors ended sales of all Opel and mainstream Chevrolet cars. However, premium car makers have a different perspective.
That’s because wealthy individuals in Russia prefer to invest in hard goods during this stressful time and the sales of premium cars have dropped at a slower rate than the entire industry. For example, overall car sales have dropped by 38 percent in Russia this year while the sales of premium automobiles went down by around 20 percent according to Automotive News Europe.
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