Mazda to start joint venture in Russia

The Japanese carmaker announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with OJSC Sollers for the establishment of a new joint venture plant in Russia. This comes after Mazda announced that it will build cars in other developing countries like Vietnam and Mexico.

OJSC Sollers is one of Russia’s biggest companies in the fields of vehicle production, distribution and servicing, while Russia is Mazda’s second biggest market in the European region. The new plant will be located in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, and will manufacture several still unspecified Mazda models that will be sold to the Russian market.

The Hiroshima-based carmaker is rapidly increasing its sales in the Russian market. In the first nine months of the year, Mazda delivered 28,000 cars in Russia, an increase of almost 77% compared to the same period in 2010.