Japan / Russia - Hino Motors Ltd of Hino-shi, Japan – the truck making division of Toyota Motor Corporation of Toyota, Japan - having already decided to cancel its plans to produce trucks in Russia earlier this year, has announced it plans to sell its unfinished plant in Khimki, on the outskirts of Moscow. It was scheduled originally to become operational in mid-2020 and to assemble some 2,000 vehicles annually from kits imported from Japan.

Hino claimed the decision to exit Russia is not linked to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, despite it having suspended truck shipments to the country earlier this year, nor does it relate to its recent engine emissions and performance data cover-up scandal in Japan. (Hino was forced to suspend deliveries of a number of truck models in Japan last month after it emerged that the company had falsified engine performance and emissions data over a period of two decades, leaving the company in a critical situation. Its sales in Japan plunged by almost 39% to 3,063 units last month).