MOSCOW, May 31. When increasing the volume of car production in the Russian Federation, it is necessary to strive to maintain the cost of products for the end consumer, and also take into account the issue of quality, said the head of the Federation Council Economic Committee Andrei Kutepov.
«We need to maintain the price of cars. This will ensure demand in the conditions of inflation and will give a multiplier effect. Yes, the public's trust in domestic cars is growing, but not as fast as we would like. Here, a very important factor is the technical reliability of the car and its technical competitiveness,» the politician said during parliamentary hearings «On measures to create production of highly localized competitive products in the automotive industry.» 
According to the senator, it is necessary that the domestic car does not lose to the foreign one in technical comfort for the driver and passengers. “It is clear that this is not a matter of a quick solution, but we need to start investing in this issue now,” he added.
Another important point is the increase in production volume, Kutepov said. “We are trying to ensure that certain industries (taxi, car sharing) have domestic cars at least in a certain proportion. But we must be sure and understand that domestic manufacturers will cover all the necessary needs of these industries. And they will not just close them, but they will high-quality cars. That is, increasing volume should not affect the quality of cars,” he emphasized.
“Can this be done if, say, tomorrow they pass a law on the localization of taxis? And if they add carsharing? In addition, the question has been raised about providing disabled participants with cars. Will the domestic auto industry be able to meet the demand in terms of equipment and volume?”, the legislator noted. .
The senator also drew attention to the fact that we do not have our own passenger cars today — the most popular among the population — sedans and SUVs (SUV) classes C, D and E. At the same time, in 2023, these classes accounted for about 37% of the Russian market for new passenger cars, or about 400,000 units of vehicles, and the share of this segment continues to grow. «This is a critically important market volume for which we must fight and remain competitive at least in the domestic market,» Kutepov is confident. 
The parliamentarian also clarified that the share of new Chinese cars in Russia at the beginning of 2024 exceeded 63%, which, with their almost zero localization, threatens the development of the automotive industry and the components industry. “We are now working on the issue of gradually increasing the recycling fee for foreign cars if they are not produced in Russia. Yes, we understand that ideally the components should also be produced in Russia, otherwise we will again go into encouraging unit assembly,” — Kutepov said.
At the same time, by increasing recycling collection, goals are set for accelerated localization of the automobile industry. “This means that it is necessary to revise the rules for the distribution of these funds to solve the priority tasks of the development of cars developed and produced in Russia in a full cycle,” the politician believes. According to him, in general, the Russian auto industry is showing good results. Systemically important enterprises, high localization. AvtoVAZ provides localization with more than 5000 points. Other manufacturers in Russia provide from 1000 to 3700 points. -0-