Aurus postpones launch of car manufacturing at former Toyota plant in St. Petersburg - local authorities

ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 27 (Interfax) - The Aurus Russian luxury automaker has postponed the launch of production at the former Toyota plant in St. Petersburg.

"There is a month left until the New Year. It is highly likely that the plant will not be launched this year," Alexei Yakovlev, deputy head of the St. Petersburg Committee on Industrial Policy, Innovation and Trade, said on Wednesday at the Russian Industrialist forum without specifying a new launch date.

As previously reported, citing Kirill Soloveichik, then chairman of the city committee on industrial policy, innovation and trade, car manufacturing could begin at the site in 2024.

Alexander Beglov, St. Petersburg Governor, and Andrei Pankov, CEO of the Aurus project legal entity, Aurus LLC, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) 2024 signed an agreement on cooperating to establish automobile production as part of developing a premium mechanical engineering cluster.

In February, the media, citing the then head of the of Industry and Trade Minister and current First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, reported on the transfer of the former Toyota plant in St. Petersburg to the manufacturer of Aurus automobiles. The St. Petersburg automobile plant in Shushary, which was previously owned by Toyota, is owned through Shushary-Auto LLC by the Federal State Unitary after the departure of the Japanese firm Enterprise NAMI, subordinate to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The Federal State Unitary Enterprise is also the main owner of Aurus (63.5%), whose other co-owners are the Arab fund Tawazun (36%) and Hit Motors Rus LLC (0.5%).

Manturov said that the company would implement the production project at the former Toyota plant "together with industrial foreign partners."

"By the way, there will be quite a wide range there, at least four in total," he said.