Program on rusty disks

The state began to pay for old cars handed over for recycling. This is another way to support AvtoVAZ

The state program for the recycling of cars older than 10 years started on March 8. The very next day, it became known about the arrest of a certain Mikhail Pankov in the city of Achinsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory. An enterprising Siberian advertised in the newspaper about the acceptance of cars for recycling under the state program. Pankov promised compensation of 50,000 rubles, but he asked to come back later for the money. Accepted cars were urgently sold for 10,000–30,000 rubles. Thus, Pankov managed to "earn" 1 million rubles.

It was easy for Pankov to deceive people - his office worked approximately according to the same scheme as indicated in the state program, only it did not have the right to do this. The scheme is simple: a citizen brings his old car for recycling to an authorized dealership and receives a voucher for 50,000 rubles from the state. It is valid for two weeks, during which a person can spend this amount on the purchase of a new car of domestic production - we are talking about almost all cars assembled in Russia.

The authorities have allocated 10 billion rubles for the payment of vouchers, which will make it possible to dispose of 200,000 old cars that do not meet modern environmental standards. This, of course, is a drop in the ocean - there are 17 million cars in the country older than 10 years. However, as they say in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the amount of funding can still be increased.

For the first time they started talking about recycling in March last year. Then Prime Minister Putin once again came to save AvtoVAZ from bankruptcy and ordered to develop a plan to support the automotive industry. The measures taken earlier did not work. In particular, the program to subsidize the interest rate when buying a car did not live up to expectations. Due to this, banks were able to reduce interest rates on loans by two-thirds of the refinancing rate - to about 9-12% per annum. In 2009, only 71,486 such loans were issued, which is approximately 5% of the Russian car market. "The idea was good, but people were afraid to take new loans," notes Andrei Komarov, director of the automotive industry at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Other programs did not bring much effect either - an increase in government orders for cars and direct assistance to manufacturers. Last year, sales of domestic cars (excluding Russian-made foreign cars) fell by 44%. In 2009, dealers managed to sell 390,000 cars - instead of 700,000 a year earlier. For foreign cars assembled in Russia, the result was not much better - sales fell by 38%, to 360,000 cars.

Then the government decided to stimulate not production, but consumption. The idea is not new - such programs have been operating in the West for a long time. For example, in Germany last year, everyone could turn in their old car and receive a €2,500 voucher in return for buying a new one; about 2 million people took advantage of this opportunity, and the government spent €5 billion. In the UK, the conditions were about the same - they issued a voucher for £2,000 (about $3,000). In the USA, they gave from $3,500 to $4,500 depending on the class of car, plus a tax deduction of $49,500 (buyers could not pay taxes on this amount). In Russia they give less - about $1700 or €1250.

The official stated goal of the program is to remove iron junk from the streets. But everyone understands that the true goal is to support AvtoVAZ. They don't hide it there. Now the sales plan is completely failed. As the press service of the plant told Newsweek, only 40,200 cars were sold in two months. In order for the plant to operate at a loss, this figure must be at least doubled.

SALVATION OF A DROWNING MAN

While AvtoVAZ is working at the warehouse: about 50,000 cars are unsold at the sites in Togliatti. The state program will make it possible to sell an additional 100,000 cars, they hope at the plant. This is a lot for AvtoVAZ: last year they managed to sell about 349,000 vehicles.

Togliatti is confident that they will succeed. “By the start of the program, dealers had received more than 30,000 applications for the disposal of old vehicles, and more than half of these people had already chosen LADA,” AvtoVAZ's press service told Newsweek. In March, the plant plans to sell as much as in January and February combined - about 40,000 vehicles.

In order to stimulate sales even more, the plant has prepared a special promotion - with the help of the recycling program, it will be possible to purchase LADA 2105 in any configuration for 99,000 rubles, and LADA Kalina in the "standard" configuration - for 199,000 rubles. In addition, the plant launched a special lending program. It allows you to make a down payment for a car with a scrapping certificate. According to some programs, the monthly loan payment can be a little more than 3,000 rubles.

For the owner of a ten-year-old car under $50,000, price should be the main factor in choosing a new car. And it is unrealistic to compete with AvtoVAZ in terms of price. The “five” of 2008 produced in the warehouse under this program will cost 75,000 rubles, or $2,500 - like the Indian car Tata Nano, officially the cheapest in the world. But some experts believe that AvtoVAZ hopes for the program in vain. “Perhaps people will want to afford more and buy a Russian foreign car with the help of a discount,” says PricewaterhouseCoopers' Komarov. “These are all intuitive calculations - it will work or it won't work. It seems to me that it will not work,” says Oleg Datskiv, development director of the Auto-dealer.ru project.

END OF DISCOVERY

Evgeny Dmitriev, a 29-year-old Muscovite, sold his 17-year-old car a month before the scrappage program began. He knew about it, but was not going to participate: according to him, he earned much more than 50,000 rubles for his right-hand drive Mazda in 1993. “There were no complaints about the technical condition of the car,” he says. “The recycling program is only for those who do not take care of their car and cannot sell it themselves.”

Just such a car is owned by a 66-year-old resident of Krasnodar, Grigory Prikhoda - he has a “six” of 1987 of release. Grigory's pension - 6500 rubles a month. There is no talk of buying a new "five" for 99,000 rubles. Parishes does not even have money to pay for disposal, which costs 3,000 rubles.

Grigory would like to sell his car, so that later it would be resold under the state program. “Surely there would be those who would like to buy my car for 15,000–20,000 rubles, and then dispose of it, having received 50,000 rubles. In this case, the state would help the auto industry and support the pensioner,” Grigory says. But only those who have owned a car for at least a year can participate in the program. It will not be possible to resell the old "six", so the pensioner does not see the benefits from the state program for himself.

The ban on resale has been known since last year. Another limitation appeared quite shortly before the launch of the program. Previously, it was planned that the car owner would be able to take care of the recycling of the car. To do this, it was necessary to print a special certificate from the website of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, deregister the car, take it to a recycling center, and after that receive a voucher. But this scheme does not work now. The certificate web page is only available for dealerships.

Speaking to Newsweek, Lomovozoff CEO Yevgeny Vesenin is constantly distracted to answer calls. “No, we don’t issue vouchers, take them to the dealers,” Vesenin replies to someone. Since March 8, he has been constantly called and asked if it is possible to hand over the car for recycling. “I have to explain that my company was not included in this program. As always, little information was provided to people,” says Vesenin.

Anton, director of a similar firm in St. Petersburg, says he will now have to close it. Previously, he took away cars from former owners for free and took them to a “dismantling” - this is a place where anyone can remove an old part from a car for a penny. And then sent to scrap. All small recycling centers worked according to this scheme.

“A starter and a generator can work for 10 years, and then the same amount after that. Why send them to the scrap? - Vesenin is surprised. Such firms picked up 2-3 cars per day. Each brought about 3000-5000 rubles. In addition to spare parts, companies made money on the delivery of rubber and metal. “Approximately 100 machines is half a ton of copper,” says Vesenin. Now such firms will have a very difficult time.

“I have almost no work left. This year I dismantled only one car. Everyone was waiting for the launch of the program and did not hand over their trash. And it is not clear why we were not allowed into this program,” lamented Anton from St. Petersburg. Evgeny Vesenin says he knows why. “We would sell spare parts. And the government doesn’t need it: they don’t want old cars to be repaired, but to buy new ones,” he explains. In addition, one of AvtoVAZ's businesses is the sale of spare parts: parts coming from "showdowns" reduce the plant's sales.

Recycling is also quite a profitable business. “Before the program, I worked with a profit margin of about 30%,” says Vesenin. Now large factories are not averse to doing this. "AvtoVAZ has submitted an application to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and received the official status of a utilizer," a plant representative said.

UNDER PRESS AND FOR SALE

Owners of old cars must hand them over to dealers certified to participate in the program - there are 1569 of them in Russia. Dealers have their own problems: they give the buyer a discount at their own expense, and the state reimburses them 50,000 rubles per car in 1-2 months. Car dealers do not have a very good situation with working capital, says Ivan Bonchev, head of the automotive practice at Ernst & Young. “They are afraid that the state will delay the reimbursement of funds,” admits Igor Bogatyrev, chairman of the board of Genser Group of Companies.

This is not the only danger. “The inquisitive Russian mind will figure out how to steal something,” jokes the founder of the Rolf group of companies, now a deputy, Sergei Petrov. There will be such a possibility, experts confirm. Under the terms of the program, the car must have a body, engine, gearbox, controls, wheels, battery, instrument panels, electrical equipment, seats, etc. That is, we are talking about a virtually complete car.

“Who can guarantee that this allegedly scrapped car will not end up somewhere in Kazakhstan? And you can draw any documents you like,” says Evgeny Vesenin. In this case, the dealer will simply negotiate with the recycling center and will not send the car for a press. After the start of the recycling program in Germany, a large number of old and cheap German cars appeared in neighboring Poland, recalls Sergey Petrov.

Oleg Datskiv says that there is another option. You can come to the dealer with documents for a car that no longer exists. And for a certain amount, which will then be distributed between the dealer, the representative of the traffic police and the recycling center, get the coveted discount voucher. “The car is going under destruction. And go and check whether it was destroyed or not,” the expert says.

Svetlana Zaitseva participated in the preparation of the article