BERLIN—Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the German luxury car maker, said Tuesday that it had stopped exports of vehicles to Russia and would cease assembly of vehicles with a partner in Kaliningrad.
“We condemn the aggression against Ukraine and follow developments with great concern and dismay,” a BMW spokesman said. “Due to the current geopolitical situation we will stop our local production and export for the Russian market until further notice.”
BMW also said that supply-chain disruptions, such as the closure of some supplier plants in Ukraine, would hit production at some factories.
BMW decided two years ago against building its own plant in Kaliningrad and instead has a partnership with the Russian car maker Avtotor, which assembles BMW vehicles from so-called semi-knockdown kits.
The kits contain the components of the vehicle and are assembled into functioning cars at the plant, a practice that is common in the automotive industry when it is not economically feasible to operate a full-fledged factory.
BMW’s decision comes after a growing number of automotive companies have idled factories in Russia or stopped the sale of vehicles there after Western nations imposed an array of economic and financial sanctions on Moscow.