Eight steps of Mercedes in the Moscow region: how the plant was built in Solnechnogorsk. Mercedes from Peshek: why Daimler opens a new plant in Russia Who builds a Mercedes plant

Why in the suburbs?

At the initial stages, Kazan, Kaluga, St. Petersburg, Vladimir and Tula were discussed as possible sites. Later, the Germans considered the option with Naberezhnye Chelny (at the facilities of KamAZ) and even the possibility of buying out already finished sites in Moscow (ZIL) or in Kaliningrad (Avtotor).

As a result, the concern decided to build a plant. The member of the board of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Markus Schaefer, who is responsible for production and supply chain management, explained this by the fact that, for example, in St. Petersburg, the concentration of automobile production is too high. Since the German mark made serious investments in personnel training, Daimler wanted to keep the trained workforce for itself. In addition, the Moscow region, against the background of competitors, was distinguished by a developed infrastructure.

“The opening of a new plant in the Moscow Region is a strategically balanced decision by a global car manufacturer based on many quantitative and qualitative studies. The Moscow region is characterized by very good material and technical ties, proximity to the capital and the availability of highly qualified personnel, ”the press service of Mercedes-Benz RUS said.

What and how did they start collecting there?

"Mercedes" in Russia are produced in a full cycle: the company has a body shop and a paint shop. The first car that came off the assembly line was. In the near future, crossovers and SUVs will be assembled in the Moscow region: GLC, GLE and GLS. The Germans plan to produce 20-25 thousand cars a year here, and the plant will reach its maximum production capacity in the coming months.

At the same time, Daimler decided not to produce the flagship in Russia, and they will continue to be imported from Europe. More affordable models will also be imported into Russia: the A-Class hatchback and the C-Class sedan.

“A plant of this level needs highly qualified personnel in the field of robotics, electronics, mechatronics and others. Mercedes intends to train such specialists, including at its enterprises in other countries, which will increase the level of domestic engineering personnel. The production of a similar class of cars with the declared one has been absent in Russia until now, ”the Industry Development Fund noted.

Mercedes will become cheaper - is it true?

It is not worth expecting that Mercedes models made in Russia will cost less than imported ones. The press service of the brand clarified that the prices for models are determined by supply and demand, the policy of competitors and other factors, and not by the presence of localized production.

The demand for Mercedes cars in Russia has remained stable over the past few years, despite the constant rise in prices. So, in 2018, according to the Association of European Businesses (AEB), it was sold in Russia - this is 3% more than in 2017 (36,808 units). In 2017 and 2016. the company sold 36,808 and 36,888 vehicles, respectively. It is noteworthy that in the pre-crisis 2012, the company sold about the same number of cars in Russia - 37,436 units.

Why does Mercedes need a plant in Russia at all?

Mercedes has not been able to participate in state tenders for five years already - this is one of the reasons why the concern decided to build a plant in Russia. The fact is that in 2014 a government decree came into force on the restriction of state purchases of cars of foreign brands: only enterprises that had managed to sign an agreement on.

The use of the national regime in the organization of public procurement is considered one of the few mechanisms that allows granting preferences to national producers and at the same time does not contradict the requirements of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Now Mercedes has received the status of a company that manufactures products in Russia.

“Taking into account the possibility of logistics optimization and the devaluation of the ruble, I am sure that the plant in Russia will be an economically viable investment. The most popular is to obtain the status of a "car made in Russia" for a period of up to three years without fulfilling the required conditions as a general rule. Further, these are tax benefits and, in the end, access to subsidies declared by the state, ”explained the head of the foreign trade regulation practice of the international law firm DLA Piper Vilhelmina Shavshina.

The terms of special investment contracts are determined individually for each company, including the duration of the SPIC, the size and direction of investments, and the planned level of localization. For its part, the state guarantees a number of preferences, for example, maintaining the conditions for doing business in Russia, tax and subsidiary support measures. It can also be getting easier access to government orders, reducing income tax to 0% at the federal and regional levels.

The government can even designate the company that signed the SPIC as the sole supplier of goods for public procurement. The main advantage of a SPIC is that it guarantees stable framework conditions for the entire duration of its validity. That is, all the favorable conditions that are promised to Mercedes will not change for nine years.

The assembly plant for Mercedes-Benz cars will open in the industrial park "Yesipovo" in the Moscow region on Wednesday, April 3. For the first time, the fact that an automobile plant will appear in the Moscow region became known at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in 2016, when the regional authorities agreed with a German concern to build production. "360" tracked the entire path of creating a new production - from initial agreements to preparation for the launch of the conveyor.

Attractive region

The authorities of the Moscow region signed an agreement with the German car manufacturer Mercedes at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in 2016. As explained by the governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, the authorities will do "everything possible and impossible" so that the car production appears on their territory. The government submitted the application for a special investment contract to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for consideration.

“We are working. I can't tell you everything about Mercedes. I can say and confirm that an application has been submitted to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation to conclude a special investment contract, which, if approved, will allow the production of Mercedes on the territory of Russia, in particular, in the Solnechnogorsk region of the Moscow region, ”said the governor.

The prepared document guarantees the invariability of the debt burden for the entire period of the contract, which allows the business to develop steadily. This was the first special investment project in the Moscow region. The total amount of funds invested by 2026 will be 20 billion rubles.

The Moscow region was already a proven territory for Mercedes. A month after SPIEF, the German automaker opened the largest logistics center in the Moscow region, providing jobs for 220 residents. The total amount of investments in the regional budget amounted to five billion rubles. The construction of a warehouse in the village of Glazovo in the Dmitrovsky district took a year.

After the successful launch of the logistics center, the German company realized that they could not find a better place for a plant for the production of their cars. The industrial park "Esipovo" in the Solnechnogorsk region was considered as the main site.

In December of the same year, Joachim Vollmann, director of the operational strategies department at Daimler AG, called the Moscow region the most attractive Russian region for locating the production of Mercedes cars. According to him, different regions were considered to locate production. Including Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Naberezhnye Chelny, Togliatti, Kaluga, Moscow. But after the representatives of the holding talked to other companies, they chose the Moscow region.

According to Folman, the advantages provided by the Moscow region were much greater than the savings on personnel costs in other regions.

The proposal of the government of the Moscow region really turned out to be the most profitable for the investor: from 2019 to 2029, preferential tax rates were introduced for him: 0% property tax, 0.1% land tax and a reduction in income tax to 13.5%. In addition, the government has provided preferential land lease rates during the construction of the enterprise and free connection to the networks.

For the entrance to the industrial park "Esipovo", the Moscow region at the expense of the budget has built a four-lane highway with a length of 3.3 kilometers. And also through investments she reconstructed the Povarovo electrical substation, to which the future plant will be connected.

In February 2017, a special investment contract was signed by Mercedes-Benz Rus JSC, the Moscow Region Government, the Peshkovskoye Rural Settlement Municipality of the Solnechnogorsk District, as well as the parties involved: Daimler AG, KamAZ PJSC, Daimler KamAZ Rus LLC and LLC Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Rus.

Then the governor of the Moscow region spoke about the future of the plant at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Andrei Vorobyov said that the concern will start construction in the summer on the site of the Esipovo industrial park, which is located between Khimki and Solnechnogorsk.

"In the first half of 2019, Mercedes plans to release the first cars: four models are now outlined, so we really hope that this program will be implemented," said the Governor of the Moscow Region.

First stone and construction

The ceremony of laying the first stone at the site of the future plant took place on June 20, 2017. The Governor of the Moscow Region Andrei Vorobyov was also invited to take part in the event, about which he wrote on his Instagram page.

The auto-building concern Daimler AG, Mercedes-Benz RUS JSC and Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing RUS LLC in the invitation thanked the head of the region for their support during the negotiations for the construction of the plant.

In addition to the Governor of the Moscow Region, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov, member of the board of the Mercedes-Benz Cars division Markus Schaefer and the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Russian Federation Rudiger von Fria attended the ceremony of laying the first stone.

“When I received my first letter from Mercedes with a proposal to set up a business, I turned to our president for help and received his approval. He advised to provide Mercedes with special conditions, which we have never provided to investors, ”Andrei Vorobyov said at the ceremony.

He noted that he had already given an order to reserve several more plots of land for Mercedes near the plant so that the company could expand its production and bring its partners.

Participants dipped their hands into a container of paint and left fingerprints as a keepsake. The construction of the plant in the Esipovo industrial park has begun.

The building area of \u200b\u200bthe new enterprise is 95 thousand square meters. There will be a plant management, an administrative building, a warehouse, a logistics center and other services. In total, the production will stretch over 102 thousand square meters.

There will only be an open-air platform for car transporters, a test track and a parking lot for cars ready to ship. The plant provides for the production of a full cycle with all stages - from the manufacture of bodies and their painting to the assembly of finished parts.

The volume of production will be 25 thousand cars a year. Among them are E-Class sedans, GLE SUVs, GLC and GLS. The work at the plant is scheduled for two shifts. According to the plan, the number of jobs will be over a thousand.

Already in February last year, electricity was supplied to Esipovo. Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov gave a command to power engineers to turn on the light in the industrial park on the air of the "360" TV channel.

Then he noted that the construction of the Mercedes plant is going ahead of schedule.

Cadres decide

In order for qualified personnel to work at the plant, the Mercedes-Benz plant began cooperation with the Podmoskovye College. According to the director of the educational institution, Antonina Yudina, 80% of graduates will be able to find a job in the production of cars in the Moscow region.

“Cooperation with the Mercedes brand began in 2017. The Ministry of Education has set tasks for us to train personnel for a car assembly and production plant. We sent our colleagues for an internship at an automobile plant in Stuttgart, successfully completed training, purchased equipment, and finalized curricula. All equipment here meets the requirements of our German partners, ”Yudina noted.

The college teaches children the professions of locksmiths, welders, electricians, as well as specialists in car painting.

Governor Andrei Vorobyov said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that students from a college near Moscow will go to work at the Mercedes plant.

“There are colleges that we have adapted, completely supplied the equipment that Mercedes has prescribed for us, and now the guys are already studying there, in colleges, in order to later go to work for Mercedes,” said Andrey Vorobyov.

Axel Benze, General Director of Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Rus LLC, said that the Moscow Region was able to provide a developed infrastructure, skilled workers, and also helped to overcome bureaucratic barriers. All this made the Moscow region a comfortable region for investors. He especially noted the work of the Podmoskovye College.

“We managed to create a program with the college, designed for several years in advance. We plan to recruit people whom the college graduates according to programs agreed with us, ”stressed Axel Benze.

He made such a statement at the meeting "Maslenitsa near Moscow" in March this year. During the meeting, Governor Andrei Vorobyov presented awards to the winners of the "Strong Moscow Region - 2019" award. The prize in the “Foreign Investor of the Year” nomination was awarded to Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Rus.

Start of work

The opening ceremony of the Mercedes plant on the territory of the Esipovo industrial park near Moscow will take place on Wednesday, April 3. The Governor of the Moscow Region, Andrei Vorobyov, invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the opening back in February during a working meeting.

“I received a letter addressed to you from Daimler, Mercedes. You once supported this project, and our German colleagues built the plant very quickly. They want to open it in April. Of course, such an event, I would like you to be present, ”the governor of the Moscow Region addressed the head of state.

Vladimir Putin really intends to visit the opening of the plant in the Esipovo park. According to the Kremlin press service, the head of state is looking at a conveyor line assembled according to the principle of "fully flexible assembly" using technology that allows the simultaneous production of several automobile platforms.

The opening ceremony of the enterprise will also be attended by students of the Podmoskovye College, who were trained to work at this enterprise.

The first car to leave the assembly line of the enterprise will be the Mercedes-Benz E-class.

A special investment contract (SPIC) for the construction of a Mercedes-Benz plant in Russia was signed by the leadership of the Moscow region. The head of the region, Andrei, announced this on his instagram.

“Nine copies of the investment contract for the construction of the Mercedes plant. I just signed documents from the Moscow Region. We send to ",

- wrote Vorobyov and attached photographs with folders of documents to the record.

Photo from the instagram of the Governor of the Moscow Region Andrei Vorobyov with the signature "nine copies of the investment contract for the construction of the Mercedes plant"

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Trade itself told Gazeta.Ru that the SPIC has not yet been signed by them. Mercedes-Benz didn’t answer Gazeta.Ru’s inquiry, but it can be assumed that the company’s executives have not signed the documents either. Nevertheless, rumors about the early signing of a document on the localization of Mercedes-Benz cars in Russia have been circulating for a long time.

And the news from the governor of the Moscow region became another confirmation of the brand's intention to establish localized production in Russia and return the lost access to government orders.

Earlier, the Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia Denis Manturov estimated investments in the construction of the Daimler plant in the Moscow region at least € 300 million - the exact figure will be announced after the signing of the document. At the same time, according to the words, Daimler decided not to assemble Mercedes-Benz S-class cars in Russia. Instead, the future enterprise will focus on the production of premium off-road vehicles: in the Moscow region, it is planned to produce five passenger models of the S, E, ML, GL and A series. Production volumes are approximately 25-30 thousand vehicles per year.

According to the general rules, an investment of € 300 million allows you to conclude a contract for a period of ten years, to obtain the status of a Russian manufacturer, as well as the only supplier under a government contract with a guaranteed volume of demand.

Earlier, Ekaterina, co-chairman of the localization committee of the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, managing partner of GDP Quadrat, explained to Gazeta.Ru that the company that signed the SPIC can count on all the benefits enshrined in the legislation - they are also prescribed in this document.

“It is important that no matter how the tax legislation changes over the next years, the tax rate for the company will not change during the entire period of the SPIC, -.

- Mercedes will receive the status of a Russian manufacturer, will receive access to government orders, and the size of the investments will allow the brand to achieve the status of a single supplier.

The amount of guaranteed public procurement will be specified in the SPIC. It is important to note that in relation to special economic zones (SEZs), a combination of benefits intended for both SPICs and SEZs is possible. So, in the SEZ, the regional income tax rate is zero, and the resident pays only 2% to the federal budget. SPIC terms allow excluding this 2%. In addition, according to the general rules, the manufacturer can count on a reduced income tax ”.

Meanwhile, Aleksey, an analyst with Alor Broker, believes that the localization of Mercedes-Benz production in Russia has nothing to do with public procurement.

“The enterprise can receive single orders within the framework of the state order. But given the high competition in the Russian market for contracts and the irregular nature of purchases, if the enterprise were focused exclusively on meeting the needs of the state in executive cars, then its payback period would stretch for 20-25 years, Antonov told Gazeta.Ru. - Mercedes-Benz is one of the leaders in the premium segment of the Russian market.

Despite the absence of localized production, even with a falling market, the company managed to earn 191.2 billion rubles at the end of the year.

Thus, Mercedes, having sold several times fewer cars in Russia than Kia and, was able to take the second line among the most successful car brands in Russia, yielding only to Toyota (213.8 billion rubles). If Kia, which earned 40 billion rubles in Russia. less, the question of the expediency of localizing production is not worth it, the intentions of Mercedes to invest in Russia, all the more are not surprising. "

In turn, Sergei Zvenigorodsky, head of the retail sales department of SOLID Management Management Company, told Gazeta.Ru that, according to him, such a plant “could reach recoupment in five and a half years, and the remaining period of the SPIC will generate net cash flow". The refusal of Mercedes-Benz from the production of the S-class, according to the expert, is connected with possible competition with the Cortege project, whose cars will be created on the Unified modular platform and are designed to replenish the Special Purpose Garage.

Let us remind you that earlier Gazeta.Ru was the first to report that Mercedes-Benz, following Mazda, plans to sign a SPIC with the government. Thus, the brand of the last of the big German three will finally receive a Russian registration. In an interview with Gazeta.Ru, the head of Mercedes-Benz in Russia, Yan Madeya, said that state customers of the company accounted for no more than 3% of sales.

“Of course, they usually buy expensive cars,” Madeya said. “But these orders do not determine the profitability of our company. It is important for brand perception and our reputation that the top management of the largest companies drives Mercedes-Benz. However, this is a very small part of our business. "

In addition, according to him, Mercedes-Benz had many questions regarding the framework terms of the contract.

Now all Mercedes-Benz cars sold in Russia are imported. Local enterprises place only orders for the production of low-tonnage Mercedes-Benz Sprinter.

Daimler has been looking for a site for a plant for two years. Among them were named St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Tatarstan, Sverdlovsk region, Moscow (at the facilities of the former ZIL automobile plant) and the Moscow region. In April 2015, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia Denis Manturov said that the industrial assembly of Mercedes cars in Russia could be organized according to the General Motors quota, which left the Russian market in March of the same year. However, no final decision was made.

Analysts do not undertake to estimate the size of the investment in the Mercedes plant. The amount will depend on the level of localization of production, Bespalov notes. “If a“ screwdriver ”assembly of cars is established there, it will be $ 10-15 million. With painting, welding and stamping, we can talk about hundreds of millions of dollars,” Bespalov said. For example, in 2014, BMW planned to build its own plant with a capacity of up to 80 thousand cars in the Kaliningrad region for € 1.5 billion, said then the president of the Kaliningrad plant Avtotor (collects Kia, Hyundai and BMW cars under a contract) Valery Draganov. But later, during the crisis, BMW postponed the decision to build the plant indefinitely.

The crisis is not a hindrance

The main part of automakers built their production facilities in Russia from 2005 to 2013 (the last was the Mazda assembly plant in Vladivostok of the Sollers group of Vadim Shvetsov was opened). Since 2013, automakers have only been upgrading equipment and building auxiliary facilities. For example, at the end of 2015, Ford Sollers and Volkswagen opened engine factories with investments of $ 275 million and € 250 million.

Daimler plans to build a plant amid the collapse of the Russian car market. Since 2013, when stagnation began, the local market has almost halved. At the end of last year alone, sales of cars and light commercial vehicles (LCV) decreased by almost 36%, to 1.6 million units, in January-May 2016 - by another 14%, to 548 thousand vehicles. Mercedes sales for the same time decreased by 15 and 17% respectively - to 41.6 thousand and 15.8 thousand cars.

In general, in 2016, according to PwC, the fall in the car market could be 15%, according to Vladimir Bespalov from VTB Capital - 5-10%.

Mercedes' sales are not dropping at the same pace as the rest of the market, and its own plant will reduce Daimler's costs and increase profitability, Bespalov explains. In addition, local production will allow the brand to participate in government purchases (now officials and civil servants are prohibited from buying cars manufactured outside Russia), adds Avtostat executive director Sergei Udalov.

Other automakers operating in the Russian market have not yet announced investment plans.

The representative of AvtoVAZ (the largest Russian automaker) says that the plant already has enough capacity (more than 1 million vehicles; utilization is about 40%). The Togliatti Automobile Plant has been optimizing its personnel since 2014; to date, about 27 thousand people have left the enterprise. In addition, since February of this year, AvtoVAZ has been operating in a four-day working week, and since June 6, it has announced additional downtime on individual conveyors.

Volvo Cars also has no plans to open production (it does not have its own facilities in Russia), the press service of the company said. A KIA spokesman notes that the company already assembles almost all models in Russia (except for the Picanto): "In the current market situation, we have no plans to expand production or build new production sites in Russia." Other automakers did not respond to RBC's inquiries.

One of the largest automakers operating in Russia, the Volkswagen concern, has reached the required level of localization stipulated by the industrial assembly agreement, said Markus Ozegovich, head of the Russian representative office of the auto concern. The company has not yet announced plans to increase the level of localization.

Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus (collects Hyundai and Kia cars) announced that in 2016 about $ 100 million will be invested in modernizing the plant in St. Petersburg; two new models are being prepared here - the Hyundai Creta crossover and the new Solaris.

On April 3, 2019, the official opening of the Mercedes-Benz plant for the production of German cars took place in Russia. We are talking about an enterprise in the Solnechnogorsk district of the Moscow region, the construction of which started in June two thousand seventeen.

Note that the production of test Mercedes started here in the fall of 2018, and a few weeks before the official opening of the plant, the assembly of serial cars was established.

In addition to two assembly lines, of which only one is still active, the launched enterprise has welding and body painting lines, as well as quality posts. The total area of \u200b\u200bthe enterprise together with warehouses and parking lots for finished cars is 85 hectares.

Note that the Moscow Region enterprise operates under a special investment contract (SPIC) concluded with the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, according to which both parties (the Russian government and the car manufacturer) are obliged to fulfill a number of conditions.

Under the contract, Mercedes-Benz is obliged to invest at least 750 million rubles in production and create a certain number of jobs. In turn, the Russian side guarantees stable business conditions and promises to stimulate the enterprise in every possible way.

The Daimler concern has already fulfilled its part of the transaction, having invested about $ 250 million in the plant near Moscow, which, at the current exchange rate, is equivalent to 16.3 billion rubles, that is, 20 times more than the amount indicated in the contract. At first, the production capacity will make it possible to produce up to 25 thousand cars annually, while the plant is designed for 1,000 jobs, although at the moment there are about five hundred of them.

As noted above, the serial production of cars in the Moscow region has already started, and the sedan was the first to enter the conveyor. The enterprise has launched the production of E 200, E 200d and E 220d modifications, both with rear and all-wheel drive.

All the machines assembled here have fixed configurations, so there is no need to rely on individual designs. As for the degree of localization of production, the Germans do not advertise it, but there should be a lot of Russian components in the assembled Mercedes.

In a few months, the E-class company on the conveyor will be updated, while at the end of 2019 or at the beginning of 2020, production of GLS will begin at the Moscow region plant. The Germans do not plan to localize the premium S-class yet, but it is possible that the situation will change with the change in generation.

The cars assembled at the Russian plant will be sold through the retail network, as well as through state purchases, to which only cars with the “Made in Russia” brand are now allowed. There is no information on the cost of localized Mercedes yet.

Note that before the launch of the Moscow Region enterprise, Mercedes-Benz cars were imported to us exclusively from abroad. According to statistics for 2018, legal entities imported to Russia about 32 thousand passenger cars of the brand, both new and used. Approximately 14,900 of them (46.5%) were imported from Germany.

8,300 Mercedes were imported to Russia from the USA, 4,600 from Finland, and 2,200 from South Africa. Plus, deliveries of German cars to our country were carried out from Hungary (744 cars), Spain (714) and Austria (573). In all these countries there are German-brand factories. With the launch of the Russian enterprise, imports of Mercedes-Benz should be significantly reduced.