Iveco's new joint venture in Russia with Samotler-NN, one of the country's biggest vehicle bodybuilders, has today become the latest automotive project to be hit be the global economic downturn, with the news that its new factory will see its opening delayed by almost a year. Originally the plan was for the new factory to come on production stream during the first quarter of 2009, instead now it will start producing the Iveco Daily and a number of niche bodied variants by the end of the year.

The Fiat Group, through its Iveco trucks-to-buses division, and the Russian industrial group, Samotlor-NN, one of the major Russian automobile bodybuilders, last summer signed up to a new joint venture, 51 per cent of which was to be held by Iveco. The agreement targeted the production of Iveco’s Daily light commercial vehicle range in Russia, and in leveraging Samotler-NN's expertise to produce niche models that are used for the transport of specialist goods and loads as well as minibuses and ambulances.

The construction of a brand new factory by the joint venture partners in the Nizhniy Novgorod area got underway last November, and the plant's annual production capacity was planned to be 25,000 units per year, reached by 2010, with an initial 3,500 unit to be built during 2009. There will be around 2,500 staff employed at the factory once full capacity is reached. The Daily and niche versions, all to be branded under the Iveco name, will be primarily marketed in Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States (former Soviet Republics) via the distribution networks of Iveco and Samotlor-NN.