Toyota declined from assembling Land Cruiser in Russia – RBC

The production line of SUVs Toyota Land Cruiser Prado at the plant “Sollers-Bussan” in Vladivostok, 2013

Photo: TASS

In Russia, stopped assembling SUVs Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, in the future, this model will arrive in Russia only from Japan. The assembly was carried out at the plant “Sollers-Bussan” in Vladivostok, but now production is stopped, and terminated the cooperation agreement, according to “Kommersant” with reference to the Japanese automaker.

Importing the model from Japan occurred earlier in parallel with the assembly of the plant “Sollers”. Toyota spokesman told the publication that the full transition to cars from Japan should not affect the price. However, since Russia will supply the updated model Land Cruiser Prado, its value may be different from the previous version.

Representatives of “Sollers” said that the company “is considering the production of” other models “Sollers-Bussan” and no plans to reduce staff. As the source said the newspaper, the negotiators agreed that Toyota Motor Corp. pay “Sollers-Bussan” part of the costs associated with the closure of the project. Another source told the publication that Toyota has decided to terminate the cooperation agreement about half a year ago and did it unilaterally.

As told Interfax the company Toyota, suspension of production associated with the project uneconomical. “The decision was made by four parties – JSC” Sollers “,” Sollers-Bussan », Mitsui and Toyota. The parties discussed the possibility of switching to the production of a full cycle and concluded that this option is not viable, “- said the representative of Toyota. At the same time the spokesman stressed that the company does not abandon plans for the development in Russia, including the expansion of production in St. Petersburg.

After the termination assembly Land Cruiser Prado company will maintain production in Russia. Toyota assembles in St. Petersburg model Camry. In 2016, the company planned to launch it into production model RAV4.

According to the Association of European Businesses (AEB) in July 2015 in Russia were sold in 1326 LC Prado, which is 41% less than the level of sales last July . According to the report, Toyota, for the first quarter 2015 fiscal year, which began April 1, the corporation sold 2 114 thousand. Machines that 127,285 fewer cars than in the same period last fiscal year. At the same time, operating income, according to the company increased from 692.7 billion to 756.0 billion yen, and net income for the same period increased from 587.7 billion to 646.3 billion yen.

As previously wrote RBC analysis reports for July showed that Russia renewed drop in sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCV). If the June sales amounted to 140 thousand. Machines (in May – about 126 thousand.), Then in the second month of summer, Russians have purchased only 131 thousand. New cars. The drop was about 6.5%, it follows from the statistics of the Association of European Businesses (AEB).

The annualized sales rate of decline slowed somewhat. In March 2015 the car market shrank at an annualized rate of 42.5% in April – 41.5%, in May – 37.7%, and in June – by 29.7%, in July – only 27.5%. AEB main cause of slowing down the fall in sales was called a sharp decline in demand for cars in the past year.

«After a total loss of 36% of the volume in the first half of the year results in July with a minus of 27.5% almost looks like good news. In fact, what we see – is the result of a low base in the corresponding period last year. The fundamental behavior of the automotive market continues to disappoint, even though it takes place in an unstable economy and falling incomes of consumers, “- said the chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee Joerg Schreiber.