MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/. Avtovaz may cross the mark of 1 trillion rubles ($9.9 bln) worth of revenue per year with annual production volumes of around 700,000 cars, President of the company Maksim Sokolov told reporters.
"Given this year’s price parameters that suggest an average price for one car of 1.5 mln rubles ($15,000), and considering the projected adjustment in the following years, we may cross the mark of 1 trillion rubles worth of revenue per year if we produce 700,000 cars per year. If the industrial policy is constructed wisely it could be even not simply an optimistic outlook but a realistic, base-case scenario," he said.
Russian Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov said earlier that Avtovaz could increase annual production volumes to 700,000 cars per year and higher within the next six years. The company’s development strategy under one of its optimistic scenarios focuses on reaching those parameters, Sokolov noted.
"Moreover, I can say that production capacities of the whole Avtovaz Group considering their upgrade over the past 2.5 years of the company’s recent history provide for production of over 600,000 cars per year if they are fully loaded. However, as we said, there are certain macroeconomic and market restrictions, which do not allow us to work with such a speed," he explained.
Technically, the carmaker can produce an even higher volume of cars if the capacities are developed further on, Sokolov added. "However, the main thing is to make sure that this potential possibility is balanced by the possibilities of the market and, what is most important, by instruments of industrial policy that would allow employing it fully for achieving the technological sovereignty," he stressed.