The ex-Toyota plant in St. Petersburg will be loaded with the production of premium cars

The luxury car brand Aurus will receive a second branch of development in the form of production of premium cars at the former Toyota site in St. Petersburg. This follows from a statement by Albert Karimov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, in an interview with Business Online.

According to Karimov, the project of the former Toyota production site should be implemented in parallel with the production of luxury cars in Yelabuga (we are talking about Aurus), where serial production of cars needs to be increased. At the same time, the development plan for the site in Shushary involves the production of premium cars. The domestic manufacturer of such a segment of cars will be in demand by the market, the deputy minister said.

"When colleagues are ready, they will announce it themselves, and plans are being worked out. There is also commercial information here, and negotiations need to be completed. Decisions have been made for the most part, they are being finalized," the newspaper quoted Karimov as saying on November 11.

The former Toyota plant has been idle since March 2022. Prior to that, the assembly site had been operating for 15 years, it was the first car assembly plant in St. Petersburg. The Camry and RAV4 models were assembled at the plant, its capacity allowed it to produce up to 100 thousand cars per year. The closure of the plant became known in September 2022.

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Earlier, on November 5, it became known that the former Toyota plant in St. Petersburg is scheduled to be restarted in early to mid–2026. This was stated by Alexander Sitov, Chairman of the Committee on Industrial Policy, Innovation and Trade of St. Petersburg.

On September 19, the media also reported that the former Toyota plant in Shushuri plans to launch a domestic Aurus next year together with a friendly partner. It is assumed that the cars will be produced under the Senat brand, and the line will include two sedans and one SUV.

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