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New Ford model production launched in Russia amid car market slump

The opening ceremony will be attended by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/. Tatarstan-based car building plant Ford Sollers-Naberezhniye Chelny is launching batch production of Ford EcoSport cars.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will attend an opening ceremony of launching batch production of Ford EcoSport cars in Naberezhniye Chelny.

The Ford Sollers joint venture produces, imports and sells vehicles, produced by the US Ford car producer, on the Russian market. The Ford EcoSport production was launched under difficult conditions the Ford company confronted in Russia: the trade volume has dropped 42% on the shrinking Russian car market which had narrowed by 13% over the three quarters of the outgoing year to 1.8 million cars, or 44,900 cars down the previous trade volume.

At present, the Ford Sollers joint venture has been building Ford EcoSport cars for exports to Kazakhstan to compensate for former imports of Ford-built cars to Kazakhstan from from Germany.

A negative tendency continues on the Russian car market since the end of 2012. Car trade has been increasingly declining since March because of a difficult geopolitical situation and the devaluation of the Russian ruble. Over the past ten months car trade in the Russian Federation dropped by 12.7% against the same period last year; in October alone it dropped by 9.9%

Officials from the Russian industry and trade ministry have warned that the devaluation of the Russian ruble is fraught with serious risks to the Russian car market. The ministry jointly with car producers has been developing measures of support to the Russian car producers in 2015, said Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov.