Toyota plans to start car production in Russia by the end of 2007, announced Toyota Motor Corp Senior Managing Director Tokuichi Uranishi.

"We inspected the suggested construction site and decided that it is suitable for the future car plant. The territory allows for the future expansion if necessary," Uranishi stated.

He said that the company would conduct preparation work for the construction site from July to October 2005. The construction will start in February 2006.

Toyota plans to manufacture up to 20,000 Camry models in the beginning and expand the production volume with the growth of the market.

"In the future, we would like to raise the production volume to 200,000 cars per year," the Toyota Motor Corp Senior Managing Director underlined.

He added that the company management still has not decided which components would be manufactured in Russia, and which ones would be imported. "We would like to use actively component parts supplied by Russian manufacturers. We will decide soon, after a thorough analysis, which parts are going to be supplied by Russian companies," the Japanese businessman concluded.

He does not discard the possibility that Russia might become a source of supplies of Toyota models to Europe.

"We do not have such plans yet, but we are considering the future possibility. If the Russian suppliers provide quality component parts, we might consider exports of cars manufactured in Russia to Europe," Uranishi underlined.

He believes everything will depend on the development of Russian car industry. "We will make all possible efforts to ensure a stable development of this project, but not everything depends on us. We will certainly need a long-term support of the Russian government. The necessary prerequisite is a stable development of Russian car industry," Uranishi emphasized.

News source: http://en.rian.ru
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