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The factory in St. Petersburg, Russia, has been transferred to the Russian Central Institute of Automotive and engine Science (Russia's Central Automobile and Engine Research and Development Institute, hereinafter referred to as "NAMI"), an agreement that includes the complete transfer of factory buildings and land ownership, Toyota's official website said. The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation stated that it was studying a plan to resume production at the plant as quickly as possible.

It is understood that Toyota's St. Petersburg plant in Russia laid the foundation in 2005 and officially put into production in 2007. Russian President Putin also attended the groundbreaking ceremony. The factory mainly produces RAV4 and Camry models. In March 2022, Toyota said in a statement on its website that it would suspend production at its St. Petersburg plant in Russia from March 4, while Toyota's car imports in Russia had been halted due to supply chain disruptions. In September 2022, Toyota announced its decision to permanently terminate its car manufacturing operations at its St. Petersburg plant in Russia, a move that means Toyota will end car production in Russia.

Toyota said the decision to stop production in Russia was not easy and that it had been looking for a suitable solution, but the St. Petersburg plant ceased operations on March 4 because it was unable to procure parts. After that, Toyota Russia Co., Ltd. continued to prepare for resumption of work, such as daily maintenance of the production line. However, even after half a year, production could not be resumed, so it had no choice but to announce the termination of production activities in Russia. Toyota said the St. Petersburg plant in Russia would start a production closure process and planned to provide maximum support to local employees, while its Moscow office would be downsized and restructured to maintain the services of Russian Toyota and Lexus owners.

After the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, many car companies, including the United States, Germany, Japan, France and other countries, have announced restrictions on Russian car production and export, which directly led to the avalanche of Russian car sales. at the same time, this has also brought a huge negative impact on the Russian economy. Under the influence of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and sanctions from Europe and the United States, the Russian car market has been hit hard, and a number of car companies have no choice but to suspend production.

In May 2022, Renault announced its withdrawal from Russia, agreeing to sell its entire stake in Renault Russia to the Moscow municipal government and its 67.69 per cent stake in AvtoVAZ to NAMI, a Russian government-backed automotive research and development center. In October 2022, Nissan announced that all shares in its Russian subsidiary would be resold to the Moscow-based Central Research and Development Automotive engine Research Institute (NAMI) for 1 euro. In November 2022, Mazda decided to transfer all shares of MSMR, a car manufacturing and sales company in Vladivostok, Russia, to Russian carmaker Sollers for a nominal price of 1 euro. In addition, car companies including Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Volkswagen and Hyundai all plan to sell their factories.

As overseas brands lose competition in Russia, Chinese car brands have significantly increased their share of the Russian car market. New car sales in Russia fell 58.8 per cent year-on-year to 687370 in 2022, according to the European Association of Enterprises Association of Automobile Manufacturers (AEB AMC).

In terms of annual sales, LADA, Hyundai and Kia became the top three brands in the Russian car market, but all fell sharply from the same period last year, while Chery, Harvard and Geely all entered the top 10, of which Chery ranked fifth with 38497 vehicles, up 4 per cent from the same period last year. In the future, as more and more overseas car companies withdraw from Russia, Chinese cars will accelerate their entry into the market.

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