Together, the plants will have the capacity to produce 200,000 to 300,000 vehicles a year in the early part of the next decade. The factories will make Toyota the largest foreign automaker in Russia in terms of local production, surpassing GM. Toyota will eventually use its Russian facilities as an export base as well.

The second plant may produce the RAV4 sport utility vehicles and the Corolla and Yaris subcompacts. The first plant began producing the Camry midsize sedan.

The Russian auto market has been growing as higher natural resource prices bolster incomes. From January to October, 2.06 million vehicles were sold in Russia, up 34% from a year earlier. Toyota, which ranked No. 3 in the Russian market behind General Motors and Ford, sold 135,000 vehicles during the period, an increase of 57% from a year earlier. Its luxury Lexus models are particularly popular there.