Japanese Hino Motors refused to build a plant in Khimki

Subsidiary Toyota Hino Motors refused to continue building a plant in the Moscow region, informed NHK channel. The company has been building a truck assembly plant in Khimki since 2019.

“Initially, the company planned to expand its business in Russia through the organization of local production in anticipation of a significant increase in demand for trucks in Russia,” the channel notes.

According to NHK, the construction of the plant had to be canceled due to delays in work and the emergence of tax problems, this decision was not affected by the hostilities in Ukraine. The restriction on the export of Japanese trucks to Russia is considered temporary, the article also says.

Hino Motors aims to double its global sales by fiscal 2025 by strengthening its presence in Russia and Southeast Asia, but to do so, the company will need to rethink its overseas business strategy, according to NHK.

In 2017, the government of the Moscow region announced that production of Hino light and medium-duty trucks would begin in mid-2019, with a plant capacity of 2,000 vehicles per year. Vice President of Hino Motors, Ltd Satoru Mori noted that they decided to build the plant in the Moscow region, since the region has “the greatest demand for trucks” and “highly qualified personnel” work in it. It was planned that at the Russian Hino plant they would assemble small and medium-duty trucks weighing 3.5, 7.5, 12 and 18 tons.

At the end of December last year, the head of Isuzu Rus, Fabrice Gorlier informed Kommersant about the suspension of the project for the construction of the Hino Motors plant in the Moscow region. Thus, the launch date of the facility was shifted for the third time – to the beginning of 2023.