The alliance of carmakers Peugeot, Citroen and Mitsubishi officially launched production on Friday at its Kaluga Region facility, which has an annual capacity of 125,000 cars.
The new Russian assembly line has been working under a test regime since the beginning of March and the first car, a Peugeot 308, was produced on March 9.
The Russia-assembled Peugeot 308s fit all the requirements for buyers to use the 50,000 rubles available from the government under its car recycling program, which Peugeot has applied to be part of.
The plant will make mid-sized cars under the Peugeot, Citroen, and Mitsubishi brands, which will be sold on the Russian market. Total investment in the Peugeot Citroen-Mitsubishi project is about 470 million euros ($705 million). The alliance plans to produce 25,000 vehicles this year.
Takashi Nishioka, Chairman of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, said on Friday that Russian consumers would not see lower prices for the locally produced Citroen C-Crosser, Mitsubishi Outlander XL and Peugeot 4007 crossover.
"We are not planning to reduce the prices thanks to the local production sites," Nishioka said.
"This operation will be a cornerstone in our efforts to grow our Russian business in the mid- and long-term and hope that we can contribute to the development of Russia's automobile industry," he said.
The director of Citroen Russia said previously that launching the Kaluga plant was part of the company's strategy for becoming a global market leader.
KALUGA, April 23 (RIA Novosti)
