The district court of the municipality of Tostedt (Lower Saxony, Germany) has declared Lada Automobile GmbH, the official distributor of Lada cars in the German market, insolvent.
According to t-online, the bankruptcy proceedings began in January 2026. The court appointed an external administrator, lawyer Per Hendrik Heerma. He accepted applications from creditors until the end of February, while the company's operations had already ceased by that time.
The distributor's problems began back in 2020 after the introduction of the Euro-6d environmental standard in the European Union. Lada cars do not meet these requirements, so their official sales in the region became impossible.
Later, the company switched to a so-called "gray" import scheme. Cars were imported into the European Union with an individual safety certificate for each car. However, in 2022, due to sanctions against Russia, this activity also had to be drastically reduced.
After that, Lada Automobile GmbH effectively existed by selling spare parts and providing maintenance services. In 2025, the company became unprofitable, and the staff was reduced to about ten employees.
According to German media, only 33 new Lada cars were sold in Germany in 2024.