Russian carmaker to start production at former Nissan plant

AvtoVAZ says the St. Petersburg factory will become operational in June

Car production at a St. Petersburg plant that formerly belonged to Nissan will resume this month, the CEO of Russia’s biggest automaker AvtoVAZ has announced.

The Japanese manufacturer left the Russian market last year, transferring all its assets in the country to the state-owned research and development firm NAMI for a token sum of €1. The plant in Russia’s second-largest city was later bought by AvtoVAZ, which is best known for its Lada vehicles.

“June 14, 2023 is the date when production at the Lada St. Petersburg plant will start. A new Lada model will be manufactured in St. Petersburg,” AvtoVAZ CEO Maxim Sokolov told reporters on Friday.

The factory plans to produce up to 10,000 vehicles this year, with output increasing over the following years, Sokolov said.

The Nissan plant in St. Petersburg, which was opened in 2009, has production capacity of up to 100,000 cars per year. In 2021, roughly 43,000 cars came off of its assembly line. The plant mostly produced SUV models such as the Qashqai and X-trail.

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AvtoVAZ is the largest car manufacturer in Russia and Eastern Europe, producing over one million vehicles per year. It already has a stable market share in CIS countries and also exports cars to Iran, Syria, Mongolia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Egypt, Türkiye, Hungary, China and the United Arab Emirates.

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