Some 80 million euros ($100 million) has been invested in new equipment and reconstructing a welding and spray paint workshop at the plant, which has the capacity to produce up to 80,000 pre-assembled kits for the Russian market per year.
Despite the threat of bankruptcy in the U.S. GM car sales in Russia rose by 44% to over 250,000 vehicles in the first nine months of 2008.
Avtotor is one of Russia's largest enterprises producing and assembling cars. Earlier Avtotor set up a facility to produce pre-assembled kits of a number of GM models, such as the Chevrolet, Cadillac and Hummer for the Russian market.
GM, which along with Ford Motor Corp. and Chrysler recently applied to the U.S. government for a $25 billion bailout package, was founded in 1908 and has production facilities in 33 countries.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev attended the opening of a new GM auto plant in St. Petersburg on November 10. The $300 million production facility will produce Opel Antara and Chevrolet Captiva models.
