The German car concern Mercedes is leaving the Russian market - selling its plant in the suburbs of Moscow and property to a Russian dealer.
"Mercedes-Benz intends to leave the Russian market and sell its shares in local subsidiaries (JSC "Mercedes-Benz RUS", LLC "Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Rus", LLC "Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Rus", LLC "Mercedes-Benz "Benz Bank Rus", LLC "Mercedes-Benz Capital Rus") to a local investor," the auto concern said in a statement.
The assets of the German company will be acquired by DC "Avtodim", which specializes in the sale and service of premium and luxury cars.
Mercedes is the third car manufacturer in the passenger car segment coming from the Russian Federation. Prior to that, Renault and Nissan sold their assets and left Russia, and the Toyota plant also closed in the country.
The supply of cars more expensive than 50,000 euros from the EU and all cars from the USA to the Russian Federation is prohibited by sanctions imposed by Western countries. In addition, sanctions make it impossible to supply components to the Russian Federation. Assets in the Russian Federation at the end of 2021 were estimated by Mercedes at 2 billion euros. The Mercedes-Benz plant with a capacity of 25,000 cars per year was launched in Yesipov near Moscow in 2019.
According to the results of nine months of 2022, sales of Mercedes-Benz cars in the Russian Federation decreased by 73%, to 9.1 thousand units.