Fiat Group and Severstal-Auto, in the spirit of enlarging their cooperation in the Russian automotive market, announce today a new project in the field of Light Commercial Vehicles for the production and the distribution in the Russian territory of the Ducato vehicle (X 2/44 platform).

Production will be located in the Elabuga area, in Tatarstan region, and will give a very important contribution to the industrial development of the region. The production capacity of the new plant will reach 75,000 units/year part of which will be devoted to Fiat for some export markets. The project will be fully funded by Severstal-Auto.

The start of production is forecasted in last quarter 2007 and the product will have a high level of local content and will be distributed in several versions. The Russian market for Light Commercial Vehicles now stands at roughly 200,000 units per year and significant growth is expected in the next 3/4 years.
 

“The enlargement of the cooperation with Severstal-Auto is another step in the strengthening of our strategic relationship as well as an important opportunity to exploit the high potential of the LCV market in Russia with a product which has been a best seller in Europe for the last 20 years”, said Sergio Marchionne, Chief Executive of Fiat Group.

Vadim Shvetsov, General Director of Severstal-Auto, added: “The new project is a significant result of strategic cooperation between Fiat Group and Severstal-Auto which shows our common intention to take all the advantages of the growing Russian automotive market. We are pleased with the opportunity to promote the Ducato vehicle in Russia and to develop local content for it."