Toyota confirms all-new RAV4 production in Russia from August

Like Nissan, Toyota is also betting big on the Russian market. Toyota Motor’s plant in St. Petersburg, Russia will start producing the new Toyota RAV4 from August 2016 onwards. 

The Japanese carmaker’s confidence in the Russian market is confirmed by the decision to add a new production model to the plant in Saint-Petersburg. In 2015 the group’s total market share in Russia continued to grow steadily and reached a historical high of 7.5% (+ 0.1%) which allowed the Toyota brand to become No. 1 among all Japanese automotive brands. 

Toyota Motor currently produces the Camry model for Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. The recent announcement of the start of production of the RAV4, the plant’s second model, is part of Toyota Motor Europe’s ever increasing local production’s philosophy to produce cars closer to where customers are, and to facilitate even timelier delivery of vehicles. This closely follows the announcement made 2 weeks ago of the start of production of the all-new Toyota C-HR at the Turkish plant, and its engines – at Deeside plant in United Kingdom, at the end of the year. 
The vehicle will become the ninth model currently produced by Toyota in Europe, along with Avensis, Auris, Yaris, Aygo, Camry, Corolla, Verso and Toyota C-HR.

The additional investment in the plant to date amounts to 7.1 billion rubles (Rs 688.72 crore), bringing the total investment in the plant to 18.2 billion rubles (Rs 1,781 crore).

Preparations at the plant included enlargement of manufacturing shops, expansion of production lines, installation of new equipment in all shops, including automation of body welding line and installation of equipment to increase automation in assembly and stamping shops. Total production capacity was therefore doubled from 50,000 to 10,000 cars per year.

The modernised production lines will enable to increase the conveyor speed by more than two-fold in May 2016. With this production volume increase, 800 new jobs will be created.

Commenting on the preparation of the plant for the RAV4‘s start of production, executive production director of Toyota Motor, Yoshinori Matsunaga said: "We have successfully completed the expansion project at the plant. All preparatory work is carried out according to the plan. We will keep producing cars of the highest quality for our customers."

Hidenori Ozaki, president of Toyota Motor, commented: “The Russian automotive market remains one of the top priority markets for Toyota on a global level. Despite the temporary volatile situation, our mid- and long-term strategy and plans in Russia remain unchanged. The start of production of the RAV4 is a key condition for Toyota’s sustainable development in Russia, as well as our contribution to the local economy and society.”