Japan's Hino Motors Ltd. has canceled its planned production of trucks in Russia, with an assembly plant under construction in the country to be sold after completion, officials said Saturday.
The truck-making subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corp. said the decision was made after it re-examined its overseas operations and the business environment and was not related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine or a series of recent scandals.
Hino suspended shipments of most of its trucks in the domestic market after becoming mired in a series of scandals involving the falsification of engine data, including those concerning its vehicles' emissions and fuel efficiency, leaving the company in a critical situation.
A joint venture developing next-generation vehicle technologies said last month it would expel Hino over the scandals, with Hino to transfer its 10 percent stake to parent company Toyota.
A plant in Khimki, Moscow Oblast, scheduled to start operations in mid-2020 but delayed, was to import parts from Japan and assemble around 2,000 vehicles per year. The company planned to spend roughly 2 billion yen ($14.3 million).
Hino exports vehicles from Japan to Russia but has suspended such shipments due to the war in Ukraine.
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