Аннотация:Subject After the termination of the industrial assembly model, Russia's automotive industry lost the main mechanism for raising investment and technologies, and had to revise the automotive industry development strategy. As the analysis of the outcome of the Strategy for Development of the Automotive Industry until 2020 shows, some systemic challenges are still pending in the automotive industry. To increase competitive advantages of the national automotive production, there should be new tools, with proprietary research and development being one of them.Objectives The study is aimed to detect possibilities for raising competitive advantages of the Russian automotive production.Methods The study involves methods of scientific generalization, economic, logic and comparative analysis. The methodological framework includes theoretical proceedings of the Russian and foreign scholars on the development of the automotive industry and science-intensive production facilities.Results We analyzed and compared three editions of the Strategy for Development of the Automotive Industry – the 2010, 2013 and 2018 versions. The article reviews the outcome of its implementation, evaluates the situation and trends in the development of the Russian automotive and automotive kit industries in terms of technological development.Conclusions and Relevance Key issues have not been solved for the recent years. Ordinary mechanisms will not help rectify the situation. It will be impossible to make the Russian automotive production and automotive kit production more competitive without proprietary R&D.