Once famous for its luxurious sedans, Volga is a Russian automotive manufacturer part of the GAZ Group, based in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. The last vehicle manufactured by Volga was the Siber, a rebranded version of the Chrysler Sibling for the Russian market, which was discontinued in 2010.
But, as it turns out, there's still some hope for the brand to be relaunched. In an interview for Russian business daily Vedomosti, Siegfried Wolf, chairman of Russian Machines Corporation, GAZ Group's parent company, revealed the marque may return soon to business, but sell cars in completely different sector. Instead of large sedans and wagons, Volga could produce light commercial vehicles.
"I call it a transporter – a car that would be smaller than the GAZelle," he told the newspaper. "Like the Volkswagen Caddy, for example." The GAZelle is a series of light commercial vehicles, including pickup trucks, vans, and minibuses made by GAZ.
Wolf believes Volga has a solid reputation of building tough vehicles and is associated with "serious, dependable production." And, apparently, this is a good starting point.
"In my opinion, the Volga as a brand would be ideally suited to the creation of a car for, say, technicians, who need to transport a small amount of cargo and tools," Wolf explained. "I would not reject the creation of such a segment. If we do create such a car, it will have all the same characteristics that the rest of our production is known for, including a competitive price, high quality and reliability."
Wolf admitted a final decision on the idea has not been made so far. Given that, it's not clear whether the possible new products will be based on a brand new architecture or will use a platform from another manufacturer.
