Iveco, a Fiat Group company, and the industrial group Samotlor-NN, one of the major Russian bodybuilders, have signed an industrial agreement that precedes the realisation of a Joint Venture, 51% of which will be held by Iveco, for the production in Russia of the Daily, the light commercial vehicle of the Iveco range, in particular those used for the transport of goods, minibuses and ambulances.

The partnership sets out a programme of progressive localisation of industrial activities in the area of Nizhniy Novgorod that will lead, in the mid-term, to an installed production capacity of 25,000 units per year of the Daily, a vehicle up to 6,5 tonne of gross vehicle weight. An investment of about 50 million Euro is foreseen, funded by the shareholders according to their interest in the Joint Venture.

“The co-operation with a vehicle manufacturer such as Iveco– Mr. Nikolay Sandugey, Chief Executive Officer of Samotlor-NN, said – gives us the opportunity to develop competitive, high quality and leading-edge technological products for the Russian market. The integration of our customer-oriented solutions with the Iveco technologies, including the local production of components which will reduce the product cost, will lead to a very competitive vehicle range”.
 

The Chief Executive Officer of Iveco, Paolo Monferino, said: “The partnership with Samotlor-NN in Russia is a further step to consolidate the presence of the Fiat Group in an important and high potential market. This is another step forward in our globalisation strategy, and a further achievement of our outstanding development in Central and Eastern Europe”. The products of the JV, branded Iveco, will be mainly marketed in Russia and other CIS countries through the distribution networks of Iveco and Samotlor-NN.

Samotlor-NN, founded in 1996 as an enterprise of automobile tuning, is a private industrial group which includes several companies developing and manufacturing minibuses and urban buses, ambulances, VIP and disable persons transport and special vehicles. Samotlor-NN in 2006 transformed 9,450 chassis of vans and trucks in minibuses, ambulances and special vehicles through its 5 plants in the Russian Federation and employs more than 1,100 people. Samotlor-NN sells its products mainly in the Russian Federation, Belarus, Ukraine and other CIS Countries.