After a number of foreign carmakers said they would start car assembly in Russia, Volkswagen said in April that its supervisory board had approved plans to set up an assembly plant in the Moscow Region, but said a final decision on exactly where was still to be made.
It emerged today that the Moscow Region might be in for some competition.
"The government of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, upon learning about Vokswagen's intention to start the production of its cars in Russia, proposed that the VW plant be built in this region," Deputy Governor Vladimir Ivanov said, adding that another deputy governor would discuss the idea with the VW shareholders in Austria in June.
Ivanov also said that a foreign company producing components for cars, including Volkswagens, had agreed to build a plant in the region, which he indicated could stand in the Nizhny Novgorod's favor in its VW bid.
Semi-knocked down production is due to start late 2007 and the new plant will annually roll out about 115,000 Volkswagen Gol and Skoda Octavia models, the company announced earlier. The Gol is currently sold in Russia under the name Pointer.
Russia saw a 142% year-on-year rise in Skoda Octavia sales in January-March to 1,198 cars.
Japanese carmakers Nissan and Toyota earlier considered locations in the region as possible sites for setting up their assembly lines, but later chose to build plants elsewhere.
