Ford Sollers Celebrates 10 Years of Car Production in Russia

VIENNA – Ford Sollers’ assembly plant in Vsevolozhsk near St. Petersburg, Russia, marks its 10th anniversary of car production.

The Vsevolozhsk facility, established by Ford, was the first foreign-owned vehicle-manufacturing plant in Russia in the modern era and has built more than 500,000 vehicles over the last decade.

The first Focus rolled off the line in July 2002.

Total investment in the facility to date is more than RR10.8 billion ($330 million). The plant has the capacity to build up to 125,000 vehicles a year and employs nearly 3,000 people, with more than half of the original 600 workers who started in 2002 still employed there.

The factory manufactured 98,807 Focus and Mondeo cars last year.

Focus sales in Russia grew 17.7% to 45,231 units in the year’s first six months, compared with like-2011, while Mondeo deliveries rose 10%.

The Vsevolozhsk plant became part of the Ford Sollers joint venture when the partnership was created last year. It now is one of three factories operated by the JV. The other two are located in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan.

The JV is outfitting those facilities, in Naberezhnye Chelny and Elabuga, for the production of new models

Elabuga already assembles the Transit commercial van from Turkish-sourced parts. Ford Sollers celebrated the assembly of the 5,000^th Transit earlier this month.

Ford’s next vehicle to be assembled in Russia is the new Explorer SUV.