Construction of a new automotive transmission plant has begun in the Saratov region. The enterprise will be located on the territory of the Stolypinsky Industrial Park in the urban-type settlement of Sokolovy. The start of the project was announced on August 31 by the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Anton Alikhanov.
The main products will be transfer cases and other transmission parts for commercial vehicles. It is assumed that the components will be used in vehicles from KamAZ, MAZ, Ural, and other Russian manufacturers.
According to Alikhanov, the enterprise will become a highly automated digital plant. For the Russian truck industry, this is an important direction: the transmission remains one of the key components of a vehicle, and localizing its production helps reduce dependence on imported components.
The project is also expected to create hundreds of new jobs. Moreover, the industrial site will not only be used as a production facility: local educational institutions will be able to organize internships for future specialists at the enterprise.
Saratov already has competencies in the production of transmission components. Local enterprises produce, in particular, hydraulic control elements for transmissions and gear shifting mechanisms for KamAZ. The new plant should complement this production base with a larger project. For Russian trucks, this means the ability to obtain key transmission components domestically, and for manufacturers, it means increasing the level of vehicle localization.
The exact completion dates, production volumes, and investments in the project have not yet been disclosed in the published information.