25.08.2022

Philippe Pegorier, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Association of European Businesses expressed his gratitude to the organizers and participants of the forum for the unique opportunity provided to car manufacturers, representatives of government agencies, the dealer segment, consulting and legal companies to exchange views on the current state of the Russian automotive industry and its development prospects. Mr. Pegorier particularly noted that the issue of the state and future of the Russian automotive industry always remains relevant both for its direct participants and for the entire Russian industry and economy.

During the plenary session, moderated by Andrey Tomyshev, Partner, Head of Automotive Services in the CIS, B1, speakers discussed the most pressing current problems in the automotive industry, such as disruptions in supply chains, falling production and sales.

Andrey Nazarov, Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Bashkortostan, spoke about the work of automotive industry enterprises in the Republic of Bashkortostan, investment projects and the potential of the region in the development of automotive industry enterprises.

Dmitry Pronin, Chief Executive Officer of JSC MAZ Moskvich, and Alexey Likhachev, Director of Strategy and Digital Technologies of GAZ Group, shared practical cases of the development of the automotive industry in the current conditions.

Dmitry Gulin, Vice-President of ROAD and Member of Board of Director at “Avtomir”, highlighted the specifics of the dealer segment in the changed market conditions. Mikhail Blinkin, Academic Supervisor of the Faculty of Urban and Regional Development, National Research University Higher School of Economics, spoke about the problems of developing the electric car market in Russia and the prospects for self-driving cars.

Dmitry Turchin, Commercial Director, RENERA, spoke about the current state and prospects for the development of automotive electric transport through the prism of the production and supply of electric batteries.

Tatiana Arabadji, Director, NAPI, and Sergey Tselikov, Director, AUTOSTAT, presented statistics and expressed the professional view over the production and sales of trucks, cars and buses. Experts noted significant changes in the structure of the market.

Wilhelmina Shavshina, Chairman of the AEB Customs and Transport Committee, speaking about the state support measures for the automotive industry, drew attention to the initiative of zero customs duties for automotive components.

The topic of current legislative initiatives was continued by the experts of the second session, moderated by Tatiana Kofanova, Automotive Group Leader in Russia and CIS, DRT. Anton Bankovskiy, Chairman, AEB Intellectual Property Committee, SEAMLESS Legal, spoke about the consequences of the legalization of parallel imports for the automotive sector and the problem of controlling counterfeit products. Ekaterina Erova, Chairman, AEB Working Group on Consumer Rights’ Protection, Baker McKenzie, presented judicial practice in consumer protection cases.

Within the innovation session, moderated by Kirill Zhanaydarov, Head of Transport Infrastructure Projects, Skolkovo Foundation, experts discussed self-driving technologies, digital twins, and R&D opportunities.

Viktoria Sinichkina, Director, Advisory, Automotive, Technologies of Trust, Olga Mudrova, Executive Director of the Russian Association of Robotics, Andrey Malyshev, Head of Calibration Department for Hybrid Power Units and Vehicles, FSUE NAMI, and Vladimir Vorontsov, Projects Manager at Development and Supplies launching of composite materials to automotive industry, NPP Polyplastic, discussed the prospects for electric and self-driving vehicles in Russia and trends in the development of new technologies. Alexey Belyaev, Chairman of the AEB Automotive Suppliers Committee, Strategic Projects Director, Smart Driving Labs, spoke about the technology of using data and its benefits for both drivers and businesses.

At the end of the forum a round table "BIG Data in the automotive industry" was traditionally held and was moderated by Vadim Sakhonko, Head of the NTI "Autonet". The participants discussed the ownership of the data generated by the car, technologies for collecting, processing and managing data, the prospects for the development of the Autodata platform, cybersecurity and data protection. The speakers of the round table were Dmitry Rudenko, CEO, Absolut Strakhovaniye, Alexey Kasatkin, Head of Project Office, IT insurance products’ company Simble, Evgeniya Ponomareva, Business Development Manager, Kaspersky, Sergey Naumovskiy, Expert, ROAD, Sergey Burgazliev, Independent expert on industry “Automobiles and transport”, Denis Klimanov, Leading Design Engineer, JSC AVTOVAZ.

Despite the fact that the participants of the automotive market in Russia are currently facing the most difficult challenges, we are confident that the forum allowed the speakers and the delegates and participants to find answers to their concerns.

The organizers of the Forum would like to thank the IMAF 2022 general partner Smart Driving Labs and partners Sintec Group, NPP Polyplastic, B1.