Mazda says that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Russian firm Sollers to build a new vehicle assembly plant as part of a joint venture.
The plant would be in the still relatively isolated city of Vladivostok in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District. Mazda says that it would work with Sollers to build “several” vehicles in Vladivostok.
Russia is Mazda’s second-largest European market and the automaker says that it doesn’t anticipate demand to slow down at all. Sales are up 77 percent through the first nine months of 2011 in Russia for the Japanese automaker.
Sollers is essentially Russia’s go-to firm for domestic car production. The industrial giant has worked with automakers as diverse as Russian brands like UAZ to more established automakers including Fiat and Ford to help set up a production and distribution channel in Russia.
