Toyota announces that it joins the list of brands that have stopped selling cars in Russia since the war began. In the case of the Japanese company, this decision is added to the one taken on March 4, when it paralyzed the activity of the factory it has in the city of Saint Petersburg.
Toyota said then that it was stopping the activity of the factory “temporarily” due to the interruption of the supply of materials and parts. He also said he would keep all workers at the plant while he analyzed the situation created by Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.
“Six months later we have not been able to resume normal activities and we see no indication that we will be able to resume them in the future,” the company said in a statement.
In this same letter, it also explains that it will carry out a “restructuring” that will allow it to continue supporting the dealer network in order to meet the needs of its points of sale in the Russian market.
The eighth world market
As we say, Toyota thus joins a long list of car manufacturers that have decided to leave the Russian market for the duration of the invasion of Ukraine.
They have, despite the fact that Russia is the eighth largest car market in the world: a total of 1,666,780 cars were sold in the country last year. This figure places the Russian at the height of the French market (which in 2021 also registered 1.6 million vehicles) and below the German.
Volvo and General Motors were among the first manufacturers to announce the end of their activity in Russia. The Swedish brand said it was suspending shipments of cars to the Russian market “until further notice”; the same as the Americans for whom that represents 3% of their total sales volume.
The Renault Group is one of the most exposed as it owns the Russian brand Lada. Months ago the activity of this was paralyzed by the lack of supplies; For this reason, Renault closed the Moscow plant, where the local versions of the Arkana and Captur models are produced.
Stellantis, BMW, Land Rover…
Stellantis also has a factory in Russia where it planned to build Peugeot, Citroën and Opel vans for Western Europe. For the time being, he has stopped these plans.
BMW announced in a statement that “due to the geopolitical situation it had decided to discontinue local production in Russia and exports” to the country from the former Soviet Union. They are also part of the list of manufacturers that have stopped all their activity in the Russian country as a result of the invasion of Ukraine Hyundai, Land Rover and Aston Martin.
