St. Petersburg, Russia – General Motors has opened a US$300 million, flexible assembly plant in St. Petersburg, Russia. The plant will add an additional 70,000 units of capacity to the more than 100,000 already available to GM at joint venture and partner facilities in the country.

The plant features a modern design that can accommodate a variety of different models; it will build the Opel Anatara and Chevrolet Captiva SUVs and, as of late 2009, the new Chevrolet Cruze compact sedan. It is the third manufacturing site to build GM vehicles in Russia; in Togliatti, a GM Avtovaz joint venture plant makes the Chevrolet Niva SUV, while GM partner Avtotor builds various Chevrolet, Cadillac and Hummer models for the Russian market in Kaliningrad.

“Today’s plant opening underlines GM’s strong commitment to Russia,” said GME president Carl-Peter Forster. “This new plant will cement our position as the number-one, non-domestic manufacturer in Russia, a high-volume growth market with outstanding potential.”