Itaallaste hobuse unenägu UAZ-i tootmisest

[Landy]

De Tomaso Modena (www.detomaso.it)

In April 2002 niche vehicle manufacturer De Tomaso Modena and Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant (UAZ) of Russia signed a protocol of intent to build a plant in Italy in order to assemble UAZ-3160 off-road vehicles. The plant, to be named UAZ-Europe and owned by De Tomaso Modena, will be operational in 2004. The two companies aim to build 10,000 units of the vehicle per year by 2006.

In May 2003, founder and president of De Tomaso, Alejandro De Tomaso, died aged 74 in Modena. He was survived by his wife, Isabelle De Tomaso, who remains involved in the company.

In July 2003, the European Union's (EU) Competition Commission announced that it had launched an inquiry into 178m euro of planned Italian state aid to De Tomaso. The Commission had not been able to establish that the planned aid, which formed part of a total 219m euro investment package, met the criteria of the Community framework for state aid to the motor vehicle industry, it said in a statement. The Commission said that it had been notified by Italy the previous December that De Tomaso intended to invest 219m euro in a greenfield plant in the southern region of Calabria, which would create around 800 jobs in 2009 for the production of luxury sports cars and the assembly of off-road vehicles, produced by Russian carmaker UAZ. According to Italian authorities, De Tomaso had considered alternatives to the project, such as the expansion of its existing plant in Modena to build the sports cars and a greenfield plant in Timisoara, Romania for the assembly of the off-road vehicles. It said that following the rules on state aid to the motor vehicle industry, Italy had carried out a cost-benefit analysis comparing the costs of creating a new plant in Calabria with the alternatives, the outcome of which was that the cost disadvantage of building the site in southern Italy was 78% of the eligible costs and was therefore sufficient to justify the planned aid of 75% of the total investment. However, the Commission had doubts over whether 'the cost-benefit analysis carried out by the Italian authorities establishes the real cost disadvantage of the Calabria site compared to the alternatives'.

An agreement was made with the Russian UAZ company in April, 2002 to assemble their Simbir off-roader from the autumn of the same year. Production is planned to reach 10000 units by 2006 when a new UAZ Europe plant will also be operating. By 2004 UAZ production has not started and DeTomaso was put into liquidation


http://www.detomaso.it/gb/eventi/uaz.html
http://www.italiaspeed.com/2004/cars/ot ... ation.html