They finally woke up. The world’s largest car manufacturer closes its factory in Russia – FonTech

Japanese automaker Toyota announced on Friday that it is closing its plant near St. Petersburg due to problems in the supply chain. This is another example of how Western sanctions against Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine have affected companies operating in Russia. TASR informs about it based on the AFP report. Production in the industrial area with a total area of ​​more than 224 hectares stopped already in March, shortly after the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. The company’s statement says that it has decided to close the Toyota Motor plant in St. Petersburg, as it does not see a realistic possibility of restarting production in the near future after six months of shutdown. Kommersant, citing sources from the company. 2,600 people will lose their jobs In 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the opening of the plant. Toyota employed approximately 2,600 people there. The plant produced around 80,000 Camry and RAV4 models last year, according to March data.In turn, data from the Association of European Enterprises (AEB) showed that sales of Toyota cars in Russia fell by 69% to 19,000 units from January to August 2022. But sales in Russia represent only a very small fraction of Toyota’s global sales. Sanctions imposed by the West on Russia since the beginning of the war in Ukraine have significantly disrupted supply chains. Technology and the car manufacturing sector were particularly affected.Rudolf Stricker/Wikipedia/Lada The Russians still have their own replacement After many European car companies announced their exit from the Russian market, the local car industry began to “bloom”. At least that’s what the local media say. Perhaps the most popular Russian car manufacturer, Lada, embarks on the production of one new model after another, and last month we reported in a separate article that work had also begun on an electric car, which borrowed many technologies from the “confiscated” Renault factory. It must be clear at first glance that from which car the Lada e-Largus model is based. It is a Dacia Logan MCV, more precisely its first generation, which was also produced at the Moscow Renault factory. Lada started production of its own models in this factory, and one of them is supposed to be an electric MPV, which, however, “borrowed” many components from Dacia back in 2004. Thank you for reading Fontech. If you have an observation or found an error in the article, write to us at [email protected].