Frontiers of Automotive Industry Development in the Russian Federation in Terms of Adaptation to New Challenges

The automotive industry is one of the main industries in mechanical engineering. It accounts for a large share of capital investments. The conveyor assembly system, which was widely used in this industry at the time, radically changed the entire industry of the XX century. The multiplicative effect of car production makes the industry the "locomotive" of the economy. The automotive industry is today one of the frontiers in the development of our country's economy. The purpose of the study is to analyze the situation in the Russian car market and assess the prospects for the development of the Russian automotive industry in the context of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the strengthening of sanctions restrictions by unfriendly countries. In the process of working on the study, methods of analysis, synthesis, description, comparative, problematic, logistic and dynamic methods were used. According to the results of the study, the following conclusions were drawn: the automotive industry plays an essential role in the processes of globalization of the modern economy. However, the disruption of logistics chains had a negative impact on the situation in the domestic automotive industry and the consumer market, led to a reduction in production and an increase in unemployment in this industry. The way out of this situation is to reorient domestic car production to cooperate with companies from friendly countries, such as China, and establish logistics chains through intermediary countries, such as Kazakhstan, but adjusted for minimizing costs. An important role in solving this problem can be played by the development and implementation of an import substitution mechanism in the production of domestic cars, including electric cars. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the proposed frontiers in the stabilization of Russian automotive production have been identified taking into account the impact of both external and internal factors in the current volatile economic situation caused by the reaction of unfriendly countries towards Russia.