The RAV4 will become the Toyota’s second vehicle assembled in St Petersburg, Russia, joining the Camry, which is built for the local market plus Kazakhstan and Belarus.
The manufacturer’s European division said it wants to build cars “closer to where customers are“, to “facilitate even timelier delivery of vehicles“.
RAV4’s production will start in St. Petersburg this August and it follows an investment of 7.1 billion Rubles (€90.1 million / $100 million), bringing the total investment in the plant to 18.2 billion Rubles (€233 million / $259 million).
Preparations included enlargement of manufacturing shops, automation of body welding line, expansion of production lines, and installation of new equipment, which led to doubling the facility’s capacity from 50,000 to 100,000 cars per year.
“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“, said Yoshinori Matsunaga, Executive Production Director of Toyota Motors.
The Japanese manufacturer has confidence in the Russian market, as the group’s share in the country has continued to grow steadily and reached a historical record of 7.5 percent in 2015, up 0.1 percent.
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