While everyone mourns the loss of imports, the AGR holding company takes in rusty Yankee machinery and promises to churn out premium batteries. The story of Ford leaving Russia resembled a cheap melodrama: shouts, slamming doors, and promises never to return. Americans left empty workshops in Naberezhnye Chelny, where the EcoSport once labored, and vanished. It seemed the site was destined to become a monument to failed globalization. But then the AGR holding company stepped onto the stage and said: «Thanks, we like it here.»

AGR is acquiring this asset not to tinker with rusty bolts under a dim bulb. The plan is to transform the former Ford dominion into a high-tech hub for electric vehicle manufacturing. This isn’t a garage battery assembly operation. We’re talking about a full-scale assembly line that is set to launch very soon. Naberezhnye Chelny is associated by everyone either with endless rows of KAMAZ trucks or with a bleak industrial landscape. And right in the middle of this kingdom of diesel exhaust, they are going to establish a factory for assembling electric cars. Can you imagine the look on the face of a worker who, yesterday, was assembling a truck frame, and today is handed tweezers and told, «Now carefully stick this battery to the undercarriage, buddy!»

Insiders suggest this won’t be just another budget «teacup,» but an attempt to enter the premium market. AGR is clearly aiming where the Chinese players, with their Zeekr and Voyah, currently dominate. AGR is literally putting together a puzzle from assets abandoned by foreign companies. A true industrial giant is forming—one that doesn’t care about sanctions or the lack of German engineers. If they can launch production quickly without sacrificing quality, we are in for a fascinating shift in the market landscape. One thing is importing finished cars from China through three borders; it’s entirely another to assemble them here, pay local taxes, and provide jobs for our people. The most important thing is that the wiring in these new models is more reliable than in the old Ladas, otherwise, the first rain will turn the premium electric crossover into a very expensive microwave.