Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) has announced today that it will build its first Russian car plant in St. Petersburg, in response to the rapid growth and potential of the market.

TMC senior managing director Tokuichi Uranishi made the announcement today at a press conference in St. Petersburg, following a basic agreement between TMC, the Russian government and the city of St. Petersburg.

The new plant, to be located in St. Petersburg’s Shushary district, will have an initial annual production capacity of approximately 50,000 units. At the start of production the plant will initially produce the Camry – a mainstream seller in Russia – at approximately 20,000 units a year. It has not yet been decided what additional models may be built.

The plant, to be named 'OOO Toyota Motor Manufacturing Russia ' , is scheduled to start operations in December 2007. An initial investment of approximately 15 billion yen (£742m) is planned, along with the creation of approximately 500 local jobs.

OOO is the Russian abbreviation for Limited Liability Company