Mazda recently announced that it had signed an agreement with OJSC Sollers to establish a joint venture manufacturing company in Russia. Sollers is one of the leading automotive companies in Russia. The JV company will locate its production facility in Vladivostok, in Russia's Far Eastern Federal District, and operations will begin in fall this year.

The facility will be used for the assembly of Mazda's new CX-5 SUV (which you'll hear more about shortly), the next generation Mazda6 and a Sollers vehicle, all for the Russian market. Production capacity will be 50,000 units per year, with the aim of increasing it to 70,000 units per year.

The automotive market in Russia has made a strong recovery since the financial crisis of 2009. In the 2011 calendar year, demand for new cars increased by about 40% from 2010 to 2.65 million units, making it the second largest market in Europe after Germany. Demand is expected to grow to around three million units in 2015.

In Mazda's fiscal year 2011 (April 2011 to March 2012), the Hiroshima-based carmaker sold 43,561 units in Russia, a 50.2% increase.