Nissan Qashqai production to Russia

Japanese car maker Nissan plans to transfer part of its Qashqai crossover production lines to Russia from Sunderland in the UK, the carmaker’s vice-president for engineering Colin Lawther said on Friday. Lawther told the Automotive News Europe portal that the move is part of a scheme to double annual production at Nissan’s plant in the northwestern Russian city of St. Petersburg to 100,000 vehicles by 2014. The St. Petersburg plant, Nissan’s only assembly plant in Russia, produces the Nissan Teana, Nissan X-Trail and Nissan Murano models. "We will generate some headroom by moving some production to Russia," Lawther said as quoted by Automotive News Europe, without specifying how much production will be moved to Russia. According to the automobile news portal, Russia is the largest market for cars built in the northeast English city of Sunderland. Nissan’s vehicle sales in Russia went up 73 percent last year to about 60,000 vehicles.