"Prices for Lada Azimut will be affordable and competitive"

Against the background of rising production costs, AvtoVAZ does not exclude a new indexation of car prices this year. Difficult macroeconomic factors have significantly affected car sales, and dumping by Chinese automakers is also a serious issue. However, this did not prevent AvtoVAZ from developing and then presenting at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2025) a new Lada Azimut crossover, which will go on sale in the summer of 2026. In an exclusive interview with Izvestia, Maxim Sokolov, the company's president, told whether the new model will be able to compete with Chinese brands, how much money has been invested in production development, when 120 and 132 hp engines will appear, and whether it is worth waiting for a new classic automatic for Lada.

"This is a modern, brutal, comfortable B+Cross class crossover"

— AvtoVAZ presented a wide program at the SPIEF this year. Its highlight was the premiere of the new Lada Azimut crossover. Tell us about the details, when will the production start? It has already been announced that artificial intelligence will be used there. What software features will we see in the new machine?

— It has become a tradition to show auto premieres at the SPIEF venue. Two years ago, we presented the Lada Aura, a business class car, here. Today he is already driving on the roads of the country.

Last year, Lada Iskra was also presented here, and on April 19, the year of the 55th anniversary of our legendary Kopeyka, it entered the assembly line. Sales of Lada Iskra will start on July 20.

And today we presented a car that has not been seen in the recent history of AvtoVAZ. This is a Lada Azimut crossover on its own, deeply upgraded platform. This is a modern, brutal, comfortable B+Cross class crossover. This is not a prototype, not a concept, but an industrially assembled car.

You mentioned artificial intelligence. It was created in partnership with the Sberbank team. Therefore, the machine is shown not only at our stand, but also at the central exhibition of the Savings Bank.

We will put Lada Azimut into production at the turn of the II-III quarter of 2026. The car will be the flagship of the model range. This is the fruit of our designers, designers, technologists, and engineers.

We can say that its prices will be affordable, competitive in the market, and will comply with AVTOVAZ's policy.

— Now we see the dominance of Chinese cars in the market. How, taking into account the rising cost of production and expensive credit resources, do you withstand competition?

— The main impact on the market is exerted by the high key interest rate and the tightening of credit conditions. Unfortunately, the market is declining significantly compared to 2024, because up to 80% of our products were sold on credit, and for some models even 90%. And, of course, it's not easy to keep up with this macroeconomic, external financial blow, but coupled with this, a large stock of Chinese cars has been dominating the market since the end of last year.

Because of this drain, it is not easy to hold the blow, because Chinese automakers are supported by their government, which is actively entering, capturing our market, dumping. But as a percentage of the market, the Lada brand remains at the same level as last year. This is about 27-29%.

Yes, in absolute terms, sales are decreasing from month to month, but the market share remains, and this just speaks to our competitiveness.

— How long did it take to develop your own independent platform? Are you thinking about developing a new one? Because the speed of technology development is becoming extremely high. They had just begun to create fifth-generation fighters, when they started talking about the sixth. Is it the same story in the automotive industry?

— Unfortunately, the creation of new cars is accelerating exponentially. In this case, we are talking about a deep modernization of the Vesta platform. But the car is radically different in terms of tactical and technical characteristics, engineering solutions, and design, both internal and external from the previous ones.

There is a development in the design of the X-style, traditional for AvtoVAZ in recent decades, but it corresponds to modern trends. There's a completely new rear suspension, and there are solutions for integrating various electronic control units. It's not an S-class, not a D, not an E, or even a C. This is class B+.

Therefore, the car is more budget-friendly and should not be burdened with technology, should not move in unmanned mode. This is mass production, which creates new jobs and opportunities for the added value of the domestic regional and gross product throughout the chain. This is a deeply localized project with a localization level of over 90%.

"The prerequisites for price indexing have appeared"

— But in early May, you stated that due to the cost increase, there is every reason to increase and index prices. Is there any more indexing planned this year, for which models?

— This is true — we can see that inflation has not gone away. But since November 2023, the indexation has been much lower than the official inflation. In 2024, it was in the range of 4.3%, in 2025, we indexed prices once to about 2% in January, and then not for all models. If we summarize these figures, starting from November 2023, it will be below 6.5%.

It is clear that the prerequisites for price indexing have appeared, but we will make a decision depending on the market. We see the aggressive policy pursued by Chinese automakers. They have discounts of up to half a million, up to 900 thousand rubles, which is how much Lada Granta and Niva Legend cost in basic configurations.

— One of the reasons for such fierce competition is cheap money in China. And our money is expensive. Do you have enough working capital? Do you have enough time to think one step ahead now?

— I will give specific figures: the volume of investments in the development of production, in the implementation of new models, including Lada Azimut, by the end of 2024 amounted to more than 37 billion rubles. There has never been such a thing in the history of AvtoVAZ. For 2025, the amount is even higher — more than 40 billion.

Yes, we are now carefully looking at our investment appetites, and, of course, we will adjust them, because we wanted to accelerate even further. But we see that, given the falling market and the money we raise through our sales, there won't be enough for everything. But there is always not enough money.

We will not reduce research and development (R&D), because this is our future. But some minor investments will have to be postponed. Nevertheless, our investment program will remain within the same large-scale parameters.

"Cars comply with the requirements of the law and can be represented on the taxi market"

— And yet, demand is falling significantly. The law on taxi localization has been adopted, which will come into force in 2026. It stipulates that taxi companies and taxi drivers should purchase domestic cars. Will this law help increase production, and what can you offer consumers in the comfort, comfort+, and business taxi categories?

— Everyone associates this law with AvtoVAZ, but this is not a law named after the company, but one of the elements of the state industrial policy that focuses all manufacturers on deep localization of products. And AvtoVAZ fully complies with this policy and thus fulfills the instructions of the President of our country.

As for our product line, all cars today comply with the requirements of this law and can be represented on the taxi market. In a year's time, we will introduce new models that can be used for larger-scale family cars.

As for the comfort+ or even business class, Lada Aura is just right for taxis. It is used in the comfort+ class not only in our country, but even abroad, I will not name the countries, so as not to arouse any of our ill-wishers once again. In the top-end version, it can even be represented in the "business" class.

— Won't this law relax you? After all, many people believe that this is some kind of restriction on competition?

— No, because the taxi market is about 50-70 thousand cars per year. This is a tenth of the total production volume of AvtoVAZ last year.

In general, the market will keep us on our toes, but here it's just an additional responsibility for us and a segment that we will pay closer attention to.

— But is the new crossover a completely domestic development, or does it use some kind of know-how from foreign partners?

— I won't reveal all the secrets, but the localization level of the car is more than 90%. This is an independent project. Yes, in partnership with other foreign automakers. There are transmission elements that are not yet available in our country. The power units on Lada Azimut are a development of AvtoVAZ. They will undergo additional refinement and adaptation. The 1.6 and 1.8 engines will have 120 and 132 horsepower. We will present them next year.

We are working on upgrading this car with new units, with a new classic automatic transmission. Nevertheless, we keep the localization level at least 90%, which is quite significant.