BERLIN – Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the German luxury carmaker, said on Tuesday that it had stopped exporting vehicles to Russia and would stop assembling vehicles with a partner in Kaliningrad.
“We condemn the aggression against Ukraine and monitor developments with great concern and concern,” said a BMW spokesman. “Due to the current geopolitical situation, we will stop local production and exports to the Russian market until further notice.
BMW also said that supply chain disruptions, such as the closure of some suppliers’ plants in Ukraine, would affect production at some factories.
BMW decided two years ago not to build its own plant in Kaliningrad and instead has a partnership with the Russian carmaker Avtotor, which assembles BMW cars from so-called half-breakdown kits.
The kits contain the components of the vehicle and are assembled into functioning cars in the factory, a practice that is common in the automotive industry when it is not economically viable to operate a full-fledged factory.
BMW’s decision comes after a growing number of car companies have idle factories in Russia or stopped selling vehicles there after Western countries imposed a series of economic and financial sanctions on Moscow.