VW to continue using DB Cargo services in Russia

The contract is due to run until April 2021. In 2007, the rail freight operator started transporting car parts from Wolfsburg in Germany and Škoda’s Mladá Boleslav plant in the Czech Republic to the Russian factories at Nizhny Novgorod and Kaluga, where they are assembled to produce finished vehicles. Final assembly in Russia does away with the need to pay high import duties and luxury taxes that would substantially increase vehicle prices.

The popularity of these Russian-made Volkswagens means that the carmaker expects sales figures to increase in the years ahead. Key account manager Michael Gaschütz has managed the relationship with Volkswagen from the very start, and he describes the new challenges facing DB Cargo Logistics as car sales grow: “Our trains use the Belarusian border station at Brest, where the containers are transferred to broad gauge wagons. This border crossing is now a transport hub on the New Silk Road. We have stable processes at Brest, and have secured sufficient capacity so that we can continue to offer Volkswagen fast and frictionless connections.”