Nissan has started the production of the new X-Trail at St. Petersburg factory, following capacity increase
Avtostat – St. Petersburg based Nissan factory has started the production of the new Nissan X-Trail model today. The model will be put on the market from 2015 onwards. Nissan continues working towards capacity increase and localisation, in the meantime. Again today, the annual production capacity of the factory has risen to 100,000 vehicles from 50,000, with the introduction of a second line. The company has spent €167 million on capacity increase. The new capacity has enabled the factory to increase the number of simultaneously manufactured models from three to five.
Nissan is expected to push the localisation rate up to 45% in near future. The current rate is 39%. Within this frame, Nissan and Japanese Unipres have agreed to establish a components factory within the premises of the St. Petersburg plant.
The general director of the factory Dmitri Mihailov has made the following comment on the subject:
“We have started manufacturing three new models this year: the new Teana in March, Pathfinder in August and the new X-Trail today. The production of the new Qashqai will start within the next few months. None of these would be possible without a significant increase in the production capacity of the factory and organisation of new processes.”
