Mikhail Mishustin: “In order to strengthen technological sovereignty, it is important to enhance industrial capacities, increase the production of domestic vehicles, and, overall, continue to form a modern ecosystem around the automotive sphere.”
Mikhail Mishustin holds strategic session on automotive industry development
Mikhail Mishustin holds strategic session on automotive industry development
Mikhail Mishustin holds strategic session on automotive industry development
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues,
Today, we will address issues in the automotive industry, which plays an important role in the development of the key economic sectors such as metallurgy, petrochemicals, electronics and many others.
The president stressed that the country’s technological sovereignty must be achieved, including the automotive sector. This means expanding domestic production capabilities to meet the needs of consumers, businesses, and public services.
The government has adopted systemic measures to solve this task, including preferential loans through the Industrial Development Fund, as well as targeted financial support under the Production of Innovative Transport federal project. These funds are primarily directed toward enterprises that are increasing localisation, automating and robotising manufacturing processes, and, critically, utilising domestic components and technological solutions. They create high-skilled jobs and increase the competitiveness of products both on the domestic and foreign markets, which is extremely important for reducing dependence on Western companies, which stopped supplying components to Russian car factories due to the sanctions.
Last year, we allocated over 350 billion roubles to establish independent automotive production within the country, above all to subsidise production, including at facilities previously operated by foreign companies. As a result, we have successfully launched ten modern production sites in Toglyatti, Izhevsk, Moscow, St Petersburg, and in the regions of Tula and Kaluga, among others. These sites also include facilities for the assembly of electric vehicles.
In 2024, we allocated about 43 billion roubles for incentivising consumer demand. This funding was spent on low-interest loans and leasing schemes, so that people could buy new cars on profitable terms. Last year, this massive state support made it possible to expand their production by one-third on 2023, for a total of 830,000 cars. This includes private and commercial vehicles, buses and lorries that businesses need for their productive work.
To expand their assortment, we imported additional vehicles from friendly countries.
This positively influenced car sales that topped 1.8 million vehicles in 2024, a 40-percent increase on 2023. Last year, the Russian market placed fourth in Europe, in terms of passenger car sales, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
In an effort to strengthen technological sovereignty, it is important that we expand production capacities and turn out more domestic vehicles, including those running on alternative fuels, such as e-vehicles, as well as those using compressed and liquefied gas. On the whole, we have to establish a modern ecosystem around the automotive sphere. We need to boost service quality, build comfortable refuelling stations and recharging facilities. We need to focus on introducing unmanned transport and creating the required infrastructure and regulatory framework for it.
Addressing a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects, the President noted that it was necessary to draft and approve legislation in this field as fast as possible, to simplify the introduction of experimental legal regimes and to stipulate typical solutions for time-efficient regulation.
And, of course, the results of the entire industry’s performance directly depend on highly skilled engineers, specialists, designers, production engineers and workers. We need to train personnel more actively in line with manufacturers’ requirements.
Colleagues, Today, we will review all issues in great detail, considering various challenges facing the automotive industry.
