At a very delicate moment in relations between the European Union, the United States and Russia, the automobile giant Stellantis remains focused on business. Given the inability of European factories to meet the demand for vans, the Kaluga factory can help.
Nowadays Stellantis produces its medium-sized “twin” vans in the Old Continent in two factories. On one side is Luton (United Kingdom), on the other is Valenciennes (France), where the Sevel Nord company between Fiat and PSA was once founded.
Between the two, Citroën Jumpy/Dispatch, Peugeot Expert, Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro and Toyota Proace, and their respective passenger versions, are manufactured. These vans are available with diesel, electric and hydrogen fuel cell engines. The latter are transformed in Germany, at the Rüsselsheim factory, to integrate the components to run on hydrogen.
These two factories are not enough to meet the demand for vans with the eK0 platform
But if we also take into account the factory of Kaluga (Russia), at a distance of 180 km from Moscow, there is more production capacity. The Jumpy and Expert vans have been manufactured there since the first quarter of 2018, that is, four years ago. At the time, 50% of components from Russian suppliers were announced, the rest matters.
Stellantis factory in Kaluga (Russia)
Stellantis has announced that from February there will be exports from the Kaluga factory to the European market, and could only be differentiated from Luton or Valenciennes vans by looking at the chassis number. The Russian factory has an annual capacity of 125,000 units.
And what about the new Fiat Scudo? Which is not being manufactured yet. At the end of 2022 the Russian plant will start manufacturing the Fiat version of the van, as well as diesel engines Y manual gearboxes. Kaluga will also host small van production (Berlingo, Partner, Combo…) as will Ellesmere Port in the UK apart from Vigo in Spain.
At the time the Russian market was very promising, especially in the last decade, but there were several problems that stalled its growth. Kaluga, initially opened by Mitsubishi and PSA in 2017, has doubled last year’s production in 2021.
Stellantis factory in Luton (UK)
A plan in danger
As we can see on the news, social networks, press… Russia and Ukraine are in a very heated environment. On both sides of the border thousands of men, armor and military equipment are being prepared. War drums sound.
Meanwhile, diplomacy tries to avoid a war in the backyard of the continent by the Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine. Both the European Union and the United States are contemplating applying sanctions on Russia in the event that the Ukrainian border is violated.
That may spell two problems for Stellantis. One of them is that Russian car factories have a embargo of raw materials, components or finished goods. It is enough that there are problems at the component level for its activity to be affected. On the other hand, if there is export penaltiesthe manufacturer’s plan goes to hell.
Stellantis factory in Valenciennes (France)
The association of European manufacturers, ACEA, has not yet revealed the commercial vehicle registration data for December -and the entire 2021-, but we have data until November. The market grew in the first 11 months of the year by 10.8% compared to 2020, 1.4 million units. The passenger versions of these vans do not count here, only industrial versions.
While the passenger car market had a bad year, it was not like that with the vans. In almost all of 2021, the Italian market grew by 17.1% and the French by 9.7%, while Germany and Spain remained almost flat, +0.4% and -0.4%, respectively. The rise of e-commerce after the pandemic is behind the increase in demand for light commercials.
In the unfortunate event that there is hostilities on Ukrainian soil the Italian-American manufacturer will have to find a plan B. Before being Stellantis, PSA already had some problems relaunching its activity in markets such as Iran, also due to international sanctions. In 2018 he had to interrupt his plans in another emerging market with signs of improvement.